(2005,'Heart issues after COVID-19 uncommon in children and young adults, more research needed','heart-issues-after-covid-19-uncommon-in-children-and-young-adults,-more-research-needed','2022-04-11 17:48:13.331759',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Heart complications are uncommon, yet treatable for children and young adults after COVID-19 disease or SARS-CoV-2 infection, according to a new scientific statement from the American Heart Association that details what has been learned about how to treat, manage and even prevent cardiovascular complications from the SARS-CoV-2 virus in youth. The statement published today in the Association\'s flagship journal <em>Circulation</em><strong>.</strong></p><p>The latest data also indicate returning to sports and strenuous physical activities after heart symptoms resolve is safe, though additional screening may be considered for youth who experience more severe symptoms.</p><p>The new statement also calls for more research, including studies looking at the long-term cardiovascular effects from COVID-19 in children and young adults. The volunteer writing group\'s extensive research on the latest data found children with congenital heart disease (heart disease or defects present at birth) have low rates of infection and complications from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease. A scientific statement from the American Heart Association is an expert analysis of current research and may inform future guidelines.</p><p>\"Two years into the pandemic and with vast amounts of research conducted in children with COVID-19, this statement summarizes what we know so far related to COVID-19 in children,\" said Chair of the statement writing group Pei-Ni Jone, M.D., FAHA, director of 3D Echocardiography, the Kawasaki Disease Clinic and Quality in Echocardiography at Children\'s Hospital Colorado in Aurora, Colorado.<em> \"</em>We focused on the effects of this virus for those with congenital or other heart disease, as well as the latest data about the potential association of the COVID-19 vaccines with heart complications in children and young adults. While there is a lot we know, this public health emergency needs ongoing research to understand the short- and long-term impacts on children.\"</p><p>Analysis of the latest research indicates children generally have mild symptoms from SARS-CoV-2 infection. In the U.S., as of Feb. 24, 2022, children have accounted for 17.6% of total COVID-19 cases and about 0.1% of deaths from the virus. In addition, young adults, ages 18 to 29, have accounted for 21.3% of cases and 0.8% of deaths from COVID-19. Studies suggest a few factors may help to explain why children may be less susceptible to severe COVID-19 infection: 1) cells in children\'s bodies have fewer receptors to attach to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and 2) children may have a lower immune response due to a different cytokine response compared to adults and trained immunity from other vaccines and viral infections.</p><p>While children with congenital heart disease have had low infection and mortality rates from SARS-CoV-2 infection, having an underlying genetic syndrome, such as trisomy 21 (also known as Down syndrome), appears to be associated with an increased risk of severe COVID-19.</p><p>The statement outlines available treatments for children with COVID-19, though there are no specific COVID-19 antiviral therapies. These include remdesivir and dexamethasone for children in certain age groups. Remdesivir is the only antiviral drug currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treatment of people ages 12 and older hospitalized with COVID-19 who have risk factors for severe disease and the need for supplemental oxygen, and it is most effective when given as soon as possible after symptoms began. Dexamethasone, which has been shown to reduce risk of death in adults with COVID-19, is suggested for children with more severe disease who require breathing support.</p><p>Heart-related complications in children with COVID-19 are uncommon. Case reports of cardiac complications include:</p><p>Sudden cardiac death and death following intensive medical and life support treatment has occurred in children with severe COVID-19 that affected the heart.</p><p>Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) was identified around the world, with as many as half of the cases involving inflammation of the heart muscle or heart arteries. During the first year of the pandemic, one of every 3,164 children with SARS-CoV-2 infection developed MIS-C.</p><p>For children who develop MIS-C, intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) has been administered alone or as dual therapy with infliximab or other immunomodulatory agents. Most children\'s hearts recovered well within 1 to 4 weeks of MIS-C diagnosis. The risk of long-term complications and death from MIS-C is estimated to be 1.4-1.9%.</p><p>The majority of MIS-C cases were among children identified in medical records as Black race or Hispanic ethnicity. Additional research about MIS-C is needed to learn why people from diverse racial or ethnic groups may be disproportionately affected and to understand the risk factors for this condition.</p><p>For children and young adults who have had COVID-19, the return to sports and strenuous physical activity has been an area of targeted research and examination. The latest data suggests those who had mild COVID-19 infection or infection without symptoms are safe to return to sports after recovery from all symptoms. For youth with more serious SARS-CoV-2 infection or who develop MIS-C, it is reasonable to consider select cardiovascular screenings, such as an echocardiogram, blood tests for heart enzyme levels and other heart function screening, before returning to sports.</p><p>The COVID-19 vaccines can prevent patients from getting COVID-19 and decreases the risk of MIS-C by 91% among children 12-18 years of age. Some have expressed concern about the risk of heart inflammation after the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. The data indicate the benefits of getting the vaccines outweigh the risk of potentially developing vaccine-associated myocarditis. For example, for every 1 million doses of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in males ages 12 to 29 years (the highest risk group for vaccine-associated myocarditis), it is estimated that 11,000 COVID-19 cases, 560 hospitalizations and 6 deaths would be prevented, whereas 39 to 47 cases of myocarditis would be expected. The FDA has granted Emergency Use Authorization for the mRNA vaccine manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech for children ages 5 and older, and it has full approval for all individuals ages 16 and older.</p><p>Viral infection is the most common cause of myocarditis in children. About 1 to 2 in every 100,000 children are diagnosed annually in the U.S. with myocarditis prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Children are also more likely than adults to develop myocarditis as the result of a viral infection such as COVID-19. The CDC is continuing to follow myocarditis in children and young adults closely, particularly a possible connection to the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.</p><p>More research is needed to better understand the mechanisms and optimal treatment approaches for SARS-CoV-2 infection, vaccine-associated myocarditis , the long-term outcomes of both COVID-19 and MIS-C, and the impact of these various conditions on the heart in children and young adults. In addition, the development of new antiviral therapies need to be tested in clinical trials focused on children.</p><p>\"Although much has been learned about how the virus impacts children\'s and young adult\'s hearts, how to best treat cardiovascular complications and prevent severe illness and continued clinical research trials are needed to better understand the long-term cardiovascular impacts,\" Jone said. \"It is also important to address health disparities that have become more apparent during the pandemic. We must work to ensure all children receive equal access to vaccination and high-quality care.\"</p><p>This scientific statement was prepared by the volunteer writing group on behalf of the American Heart Association\'s Council on Lifelong Congenital Heart Disease and Heart Health in the Young (Young Hearts); the Council on Hypertension; and the Council on Peripheral Vascular Disease. American Heart Association scientific statements promote greater awareness about cardiovascular diseases and stroke issues and help facilitate informed health care decisions. Scientific Statements outline what is currently known about a topic, and what areas need additional research. While scientific statements inform the development of guidelines, they do not make treatment recommendations. American Heart Association guidelines provide the Association\'s official clinical practice recommendations.</p><p>Co-authors are Vice Chair Sarah D. de Ferranti, M.D., M.P.H., FAHA; Anitha John, M.D., Ph.D.; Matthew E. Oster, M.D., M.P.H., FAHA; Kiona Allen, M.D.; Adrianna H. Tremoulet, M.D., M.A.S., FAHA; Elizabeth V. Saarel, M.D., FAHA; Linda M. Lambert, A.P.R.N., FAHA; and Shelley D. Miyamoto, M.D., FAHA. Authors\' disclosures are listed in the manuscript.</p>','2022-04-11 17:48:13.331759','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American Heart Association','The new scientific statement details what has been learned about how to treat, manage and even likely prevent cardiovascular complications from the SARS-CoV-2 virus in children and young adults, and calls for more research, including studies following the short- and long-term cardiovascular effects from COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.\n',1,150,'<li>Pei-Ni Jone, Anitha John, Matthew E. Oster, Kiona Allen, Adrianna H. Tremoulet, Elizabeth V. Saarel, Linda M. Lambert, Shelley D. Miyamoto, Sarah D. de Ferranti. <strong>SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Associated Cardiovascular Manifestations and Complications in Children and Young Adults: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association</strong>. <em>Circulation</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001064\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1161/CIR.0000000000001064</a>\n</li>'),(2006,'SARS-CoV-2: Neutralization of BA.1 and BA.2 by therapeutic monoclonal antibodies','sars-cov-2:-neutralization-of-ba.1-and-ba.2-by-therapeutic-monoclonal-antibodies','2022-04-11 17:48:16.227088',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 sublineage has been supplanted in many countries by the BA.2 sublineage. Although Omicron is responsible for less severe forms in the general population, immunocompromised people are still at higher risk of developing severe forms of COVID-19. Several monoclonal antibodies are currently available in clinical practice as a preventive treatment for these patients. Scientists from the Institut Pasteur, the CNRS, the Vaccine Research Institute (VRI), in collaboration with Orléans Regional Hospital, the Paris Public Hospital Network (AP-HP), KU Leuven (the Catholic University of Leuven) and Université Paris Cité, studied the sensitivity of Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 to nine monoclonal antibodies, some of which are used in pre-exposure prophylaxis in immunocompromised individuals. The scientists showed a loss of neutralizing activity against BA.1 and BA.2 in people treated with two antibody cocktails (Ronapreve<sup>®</sup> or Evusheld<sup>®</sup>). These findings were published in <em>Nature Medicine</em> on March 23, 2022.</p><p>The Omicron sublineage BA.2 has become increasingly common and is now dominant in several countries, including France. Scientists from the Institut Pasteur\'s Virus and Immunity Unit (a joint research unit with the CNRS) and the VRI began by studying the sensitivity of the Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 sublineages to therapeutic monoclonal antibodies in a cell culture system. This step involved isolating an infectious BA.2 strain in collaboration with the Rega Institute at KU Leuven. They then examined the efficacy of pre-exposure prophylaxis in immunocompromised individuals at risk of developing severe COVID-19. The scientists first described the <em>in vitro</em> sensitivity of BA.2 to nine therapeutic antibodies, as compared to the Delta variant and Omicron BA.1. They went on to examine the clinical implications of these observations by measuring the neutralizing activity of the antibodies in sera from 29 individuals who had been treated with Ronapreve<sup>®</sup> (a cocktail of two antibodies developed by Roche/Regeneron) and/or Evusheld<sup>®</sup> (a cocktail of two antibodies developed by AstraZeneca).</p><p>The scientists compared the ability of the patients\' sera to tackle BA.1 and BA.2 between 3 and 30 days after treatment. The results of the study show that therapeutic sensitivity varies depending on the Omicron sublineage.</p><p>\"We show that the antibodies and corresponding sera are inactive or only weakly active against BA.1, but more active against BA.2. As compared to the Delta variant, neutralizing titers were more markedly decreased against BA.1 (344-fold) than BA.2 (9-fold),\" explained Timothée Bruel, lead author of the study and a scientist in the Virus and Immunity Unit at the Institut Pasteur (a joint research unit with the CNRS) with regard to Evusheld<sup>®</sup>.</p><p>Four Omicron infections were also reported among the 29 patients treated with antibodies (including one severe case). \"This shows that, in this case, treatment does not fully protect against infection or against severe forms,\" explained Thierry Prazuck, co-last author of the study and Head of the Infectious Diseases Department at Orléans Regional Hospital.</p><p>\"To our knowledge, this is the first study to directly describe the seroneutralization of individuals treated with monoclonal antibodies against Delta, BA.1 and BA.2, and to link the results with infections. BA.1, and to a lesser extent BA.2, is less sensitive to Evusheld<sup>®</sup> and Ronapreve<sup>®</sup> than Delta. This suggests that these treatments are probably less clinically effective against Omicron infection than against Delta,\" commented Olivier Schwartz, last author of the study and Head of the Virus and Immunity Unit at the Institut Pasteur (a joint research unit with the CNRS).</p><p>There are thought to be 230,000 immunocompromised people in France, including individuals receiving immunosuppressants for a transplant or chemotherapy for cancer, patients with autoimmune diseases and those yet to be treated for HIV infection. The antibodies have been administered to tens of thousands of individuals worldwide. This therefore represents a major public health issue which will require further clinical studies so that treatments can be adjusted in line with circulating variants.</p>','2022-04-11 17:48:16.227088','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Institut Pasteur','Scientists studied the sensitivity of Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 to nine monoclonal antibodies, some of which are used in pre-exposure prophylaxis in immunocompromised individuals. The scientists showed a loss of neutralizing activity against BA.1 and BA.2 in people treated with two antibody cocktails.\n',1,23,'<li>Timothée Bruel, Jérôme Hadjadj, Piet Maes, Delphine Planas, Aymeric Seve, Isabelle Staropoli, Florence Guivel-Benhassine, Françoise Porrot, William-Henry Bolland, Yann Nguyen, Marion Casadevall, Caroline Charre, Hélène Péré, David Veyer, Matthieu Prot, Artem Baidaliuk, Lize Cuypers, Cyril Planchais, Hugo Mouquet, Guy Baele, Luc Mouthon, Laurent Hocqueloux, Etienne Simon-Loriere, Emmanuel André, Benjamin Terrier, Thierry Prazuck, Olivier Schwartz. <strong>Serum neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron sublineages BA.1 and BA.2 in patients receiving monoclonal antibodies</strong>. <em>Nature Medicine</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01792-5\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41591-022-01792-5</a>\n</li>'),(2007,'Neptune is cooler than we thought: Study reveals unexpected changes in atmospheric temperatures','neptune-is-cooler-than-we-thought:-study-reveals-unexpected-changes-in-atmospheric-temperatures','2022-04-11 17:48:22.148962',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">New research led by space scientists at the University of Leicester has revealed how temperatures in Neptune\'s atmosphere have unexpectedly fluctuated over the past two decades.</p><p>The study, published today (Monday) in <em>Planetary Science Journal</em>, used observations in thermal-infrared wavelengths beyond the visible light spectrum, effectively sensing heat emitted from the planet\'s atmosphere.</p><p>An international team of researchers, including scientists from Leicester and NASA\'s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), combined all existing thermal infrared images of Neptune gathered from multiple observatories over almost two decades. These include the European Southern Observatory\'s Very Large Telescope and Gemini South telescope in Chile, together with the Subaru Telescope, Keck Telescope, and the Gemini North telescope, all in Hawai\'i, and spectra from NASA\'s Spitzer Space Telescope.</p><p>By analysing the data, the researchers were able to reveal a more complete picture of trends in Neptune\'s temperatures than ever before.</p><p>But to the researchers\' surprise, these collective datasets show a decline in Neptune\'s thermal brightness since reliable thermal imaging began in 2003, indicating that globally-averaged temperatures in Neptune\'s stratosphere -- the layer of the atmosphere just above its active weather layer -- have dropped by roughly 8 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) between 2003 and 2018.</p><p>Dr Michael Roman, Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Leicester and lead author on the paper, said:</p><p>\"This change was unexpected. Since we have been observing Neptune during its early southern summer, we would expect temperatures to be slowly growing warmer, not colder.\"</p><p>Neptune has an axial tilt, and so it experiences seasons, just like Earth. However, given its great distance from the Sun, Neptune takes over 165 years to complete an orbit around its host star, and so its seasons change slowly, lasting over 40 Earth-years each.</p><p>Dr Glenn Orton, Senior Research Scientist at JPL and co-author on the study, noted:</p><p>\"Our data cover less than half of a Neptune season, so no one was expecting to see large and rapid changes.\"</p><p>Yet, at Neptune\'s south pole, the data reveal a different and surprisingly dramatic change. A combination of observations from Gemini North in 2019 and Subaru in 2020 reveal that Neptune\'s polar stratosphere warmed by roughly 11?C (~20?F) between 2018 and 2020, reversing the previous globally-averaged cooling trend. Such polar warming has never been observed on Neptune before.</p><p>The cause of these unexpected stratospheric temperature changes is currently unknown, and the results challenge scientists\' understanding of Neptune\'s atmospheric variability.</p><p>Dr Roman continued:</p><p>\"Temperature variations may be related to seasonal changes in Neptune\'s atmospheric chemistry, which can alter how effectively the atmosphere cools.</p><p>\"But random variability in weather patterns or even a response to the 11-year solar activity cycle may also have an effect.\"</p><p>The 11-year solar cycle (marked by periodic variation in the Sun\'s activity and sunspots) has been previously suggested to affect Neptune\'s visible brightness, and the new study reveals a possible, but tentative, correlation between the solar activity, stratospheric temperatures, and the number of bright clouds seen on Neptune.</p><p>Follow-up observations of the temperature and cloud patterns are needed to further assess any possible connection in the years ahead.</p><p>Answers to these mysteries and more will come from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which is set to observe both ice giants, Uranus and Neptune, later this year.</p><p>Leigh Fletcher, Professor of Planetary Science at the University of Leicester, will lead such observations with allocated time of JWST\'s suite of instruments. Professor Fletcher, also a co-author on this study, said:</p><p>\"The exquisite sensitivity of the space telescope\'s mid-infrared instrument, MIRI, will provide unprecedented new maps of the chemistry and temperatures in Neptune\'s atmosphere, helping to better identify the nature of these recent changes.\"</p><p>This study was funded by a European Research Council grant to the University of Leicester, known as GIANTCLIMES. This project has previously discovered long-term changes in atmospheric temperatures and clouds on the gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, and it provided the first maps of the stratospheric temperatures of Uranus. GIANTCLIMES has paved the way for new discoveries on all four giant planets from JWST in the years to come.</p><p>Additional co-authors on this work include Thomas Greathouse (Southwest Research Institute), Julianne Moses (Space Science Institute), Naomi Rowe-Gurney (Howard University / NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), Patrick Irwin (Oxford), Arrate Antuñano (UPV/EHU), James Sinclair (JPL), Yasumasa Kasaba (Tohoku University), Takuya Fujiyoshi (Subaru Telescope), Imke de Pater (UC Berkeley), and Heidi Hammel (Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy).</p><p>\'Sub-Seasonal Variation in Neptune\'s Mid-Infrared Emission\' is published in <em>Planetary Science Journal</em>.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-04-11 17:48:22.148962','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Leicester','New research has revealed how temperatures in Neptune\'s atmosphere have unexpectedly fluctuated over the past two decades.\n',1,27,'<li>Michael T. Roman, Leigh N. Fletcher, Glenn S. Orton, Thomas K. Greathouse, Julianne I. Moses, Naomi Rowe-Gurney, Patrick G. J. Irwin, Arrate Antuñano, James Sinclair, Yasumasa Kasaba, Takuya Fujiyoshi, Imke de Pater, Heidi B. Hammel. <strong>Subseasonal Variation in Neptune’s Mid-infrared Emission</strong>. <em>The Planetary Science Journal</em>, 2022; 3 (4): 78 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/ac5aa4\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.3847/PSJ/ac5aa4</a>\n</li>'),(2008,'Electron lens formed by light: A new method for atomic-resolution electron microscopes','electron-lens-formed-by-light:-a-new-method-for-atomic-resolution-electron-microscopes','2022-04-11 17:48:28.445833',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Electron microscopy enables researchers to visualize tiny objects such as viruses, the fine structures of semiconductor devices, and even atoms arranged on a material surface. Focusing down the electron beam to the size of an atom is vital for achieving such high spatial resolution. However, when the electron beam passes through an electrostatic or magnetic lens, the rays of electrons exhibit different focal positions depending on the focusing angle and the beam spreads out at the focus. Correcting this \"spherical aberration\" is costly and complex, meaning that only a select few scientists and companies possess electron microscopes with atomic resolution.</p><p>Researchers from Tohoku University have proposed a new method to form an electron lens that uses a light field instead of the electrostatic and magnetic fields employed in conventional electron lenses. A ponderomotive force causes the electrons traveling in the light field to be repelled from regions of high optical intensity. Using this phenomenon, a doughnut-shaped light beam placed coaxially with an electron beam is expected to produce a lensing effect on the electron beam.</p><p>The researches theoretically assessed the characteristics of the light-field electron lens formed using a typical doughnut-shaped light beam -- known as a Bessel or Laguerre-Gaussian beam. From there, they obtained a simple formula for focal length and spherical aberration coefficients which allowed them to determine rapidly the guiding parameters necessary for the actual electron lens design.</p><p>The formulas demonstrated that the light-field electron lens generates a \"negative\" spherical aberration which opposes the aberration of electrostatic and magnetic electron lenses. The combination of the conventional electron lens with a \"positive\" spherical aberration and a light-field electron lens that offset the aberration reduced the electron beams size to the atomic scale. This means that the light-field electron lens could be used as a spherical aberration corrector.</p><p>\"The light-field electron lens has unique characteristics not seen in conventional electrostatic and magnetic electron lenses,\" says Yuuki Uesugi, assistant professor at the Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials at Tohoku University and lead author of the study. \"The realization of light-based aberration corrector will significantly reduce installation costs for electron microscopes with atomic resolution, leading to their widespread use in diverse scientific and industrial fields,\" adds Uesugi.</p><p>Looking ahead, Uesugi and colleagues are exploring ways for the practical application of next-generation electron microscopes using the light-field electron lens.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-04-11 17:48:28.445833','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Tohoku University','Researchers have proposed a new method to form an electron lens that will help reduce installation costs for electron microscopes with atomic resolution, proliferating their use. Instead of the electrostatic and magnetic fields employed in conventional electron lenses, they utilized a light field electron-lens.\n',1,97,'<li>Yuuki Uesugi, Yuichi Kozawa, Shunichi Sato. <strong>Properties of electron lenses produced by ponderomotive potential with Bessel and Laguerre–Gaussian beams</strong>. <em>Journal of Optics</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/2040-8986/ac6524\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1088/2040-8986/ac6524</a>\n</li>'),(2009,'Light-powered microbes are super-producing chemical factories','light-powered-microbes-are-super-producing-chemical-factories','2022-04-11 17:48:31.914567',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Sharing is key to living in society, whether it\'s toddlers sharing toys or nations sharing natural resources; but there\'s no avoiding the fact that one side getting more means that the other side gets less. Now, researchers from Osaka University, in collaboration with the University of Shizuoka and Kobe University, have found a way to get around the need for sharing energy in biomanufacturing, so that the cellular pathways dedicated to generating the product always get more.</p><p>In a study published recently in <em>Metabolic Engineering</em>, the researchers have revealed that microorganisms can be engineered to use light for energy, freeing up cellular resources to produce biomanufactured products.</p><p>Metabolically engineered microorganisms are used to produce various useful chemicals throughout the world, but there\'s a catch: both microbial growth and chemical synthesis require a molecule called ATP as an energy source. Because of this, keeping the cellular \"factories\" healthy limits chemical production.</p><p>\"Microorganisms that produce useful substances are usually developed by modifying metabolism to convert energy that would normally be used for growth into a resource for synthesizing these target substances,\" explains Yoshihiro Toya, first author on the study. \"We reasoned that instead we could use light, an external energy source, to improve production of useful substances without disrupting the microorganisms\' natural metabolism.\"</p><p>To test this, the researchers introduced a heterologous membrane protein called rhodopsin into <em>Escherichia coli</em>, a common microorganism used in biomanufacturing. Rhodopsin is a pump that is activated by light, and the action of the pump leads to the generation of ATP without using the cell\'s natural machinery (known as the TCA cycle and respiratory chain) to produce it. This approach has the added benefit of reducing the emission of carbon dioxide, a byproduct of the TCA cycle.</p><p>\"The results clearly showed the success of our strategy,\" states Kiyotaka Y. Hara, project leader. \"The cells expressing rhodopsin generated significantly more chemical products when exposed to light, and the carbon flow in these cells was directed away from energy generation and toward chemical synthesis.\"</p><p>Once they had proved that this concept worked for various compounds such as 3-hydroxypropionate, mevalonate, and glutathione, the researchers went on to create three new strains of <em>E. coli</em>. One of these strains expressed super-rhodopsins with even better pump activities than the original rhodopsin that was tested; this strain was developed by Dr Toya\'s group at Osaka University. The other two strains incorporated synthetic biological systems that provided an intrinsic supply of retinal, the activator of rhodopsin, and optimized the balanced expression of multiple genes in the relevant metabolic pathway; these strains were established by Dr Jun Ishii\'s group at Kobe University. Finally, Dr Hara\'s group at the University of Shizuoka integrated all of these systems into a single <em>E. coli </em>strain that produces a chemical in a light-dependent manner.</p><p>\"Our findings suggest that biomanufactured microorganisms designed to use light for energy source can be used to efficiently biosynthesize useful target compounds,\" states Hara.</p><p>This new approach is expected to increase the efficiency of producing useful materials through fermentation and other bioprocesses while simultaneously reducing carbon emissions.</p>','2022-04-11 17:48:31.914567','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Osaka University','Researchers have found that engineering the light-dependent proton pump rhodopsin into Escherichia coli redirects carbon flow from cellular metabolism to biosynthetic product generation. This approach of using light as an energy source can help improve the efficiency of target compound production and reduce CO2 emissions.\n',1,27,'<li>Yoshihiro Toya, Yoko Hirono-Hara, Hidenobu Hirayama, Kentaro Kamata, Ryo Tanaka, Mikoto Sano, Sayaka Kitamura, Kensuke Otsuka, Rei Abe-Yoshizumi, Satoshi P. Tsunoda, Hiroshi Kikukawa, Hideki Kandori, Hiroshi Shimizu, Fumio Matsuda, Jun Ishii, Kiyotaka Y. Hara. <strong>Optogenetic reprogramming of carbon metabolism using light-powering microbial proton pump systems</strong>. <em>Metabolic Engineering</em>, 2022; 72: 227 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ymben.2022.03.012\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.ymben.2022.03.012</a>\n</li>'),(2010,'New protein discovery reveals the mechanisms of nitrogen assimilation in plants','new-protein-discovery-reveals-the-mechanisms-of-nitrogen-assimilation-in-plants','2022-04-11 17:48:36.352062',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A collaborative research group has discovered the protein that inhibits the formation of organic nitrogen compounds in plants. This protein, if manipulated, could potentially be used to encourage plant growth, improving biomass production and crop harvests.</p><p>Nitrogen is one of the building blocks of life. Humans need nitrogen to make the amino acids, proteins, and nucleic acids essential for growth, hormones, brain functions, the immune system, and DNA and RNA. Humans, unlike plants, cannot synthesize organic nitrogen molecules. Instead, we rely on plants for our nitrogen intake.</p><p>Plants utilise nitrate or ammonium in the environment to synthesize organic nitrogen molecules in a process called nitrogen assimilation. Crop production relies on nitrogen fertilizers to improve the efficiency of nitrogen uptake in crops. Still, the regulatory mechanisms behind nitrogen assimilation have continued to elude scientists.</p><p>Multiple proteins mediate nitrogen assimilation. The expression of these proteins is high when the surrounding soil and water contains low amounts of ammonium and nitrate ions, suggesting the existence of a negative regulator dependent on these factors.</p><p>Previous research by the group reported that the protein MYB1 serves a crucial role in inducing the expression of genes necessary for nitrogen assimilation, and it becomes inhibited in high nitrogen environments. The current findings revealed that the novel protein NDB1 inactivated MYB1. NDB1 traps MYB1 in the cytoplasm and prevents it from functioning as a transcription factor.</p><p>\"The NDB1-MYB1 pathway is a key factor in regulating nitrogen assimilation,\" says Kazuhiko Igarashi, professor at the Department of Biochemistry at Tohoku University\'s Graduate School of Medicine and co-author of the paper by Baifeng Zhou of the Institute of Innovative Research at Tokyo Institute of Technology. \"Our discovery is a breakthrough for the field of plant science.\"</p><p>The collaborative team led by Sousuke Imamura of the Institute of Innovative Research at Tokyo Institute of Technology also found that deleting the NDB1 gene enabled red alga to maintain the MYB1-dependent nitrate assimilation gene expression even in nitrogen-rich conditions, indicating that manipulating NDB1 can boost plant growth.</p><p>Looking ahead, Igarashi is eager to explore the MYB1 transcription factor network further. \"We would like to identify other proteins involved in regulating nitrogen assimilation and investigate whether nitrogen assimilation can be elevated through NDB1 manipulation.\"</p>','2022-04-11 17:48:36.352062','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Tohoku University','Researchers recently discovered the protein inhibiting the formation of organic nitrogen compounds in plants. This protein, if manipulated, could potentially be used to encourage plant growth and improve crop harvests.\n',1,27,'<li>Baifeng Zhou, Hiroki Shima, Kazuhiko Igarashi, Kan Tanaka, Sousuke Imamura. <strong>CmNDB1 and a Specific Domain of CmMYB1 Negatively Regulate CmMYB1-Dependent Transcription of Nitrate Assimilation Genes Under Nitrogen-Repleted Condition in a Unicellular Red Alga</strong>. <em>Frontiers in Plant Science</em>, 2022; 13 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.821947\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.3389/fpls.2022.821947</a>\n</li>'),(2011,'Trainee teachers made sharper assessments about learning difficulties after receiving feedback from AI','trainee-teachers-made-sharper-assessments-about-learning-difficulties-after-receiving-feedback-from-ai','2022-04-11 17:48:41.492682',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A trial in which trainee teachers who were being taught to identify pupils with potential learning difficulties had their work \'marked\' by artificial intelligence has found the approach significantly improved their reasoning.</p><p>The study, with 178 trainee teachers in Germany, was carried out by a research team led by academics at the University of Cambridge and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU Munich). It provides some of the first evidence that artificial intelligence (AI) could enhance teachers\' \'diagnostic reasoning\': the ability to collect and assess evidence about a pupil, and draw appropriate conclusions so they can be given tailored support.</p><p>During the trial, trainees were asked to assess six fictionalised \'simulated\' pupils with potential learning difficulties. They were given examples of their schoolwork, as well as other information such as behaviour records and transcriptions of conversations with parents. They then had to decide whether or not each pupil had learning difficulties such as dyslexia or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and explain their reasoning.</p><p>Immediately after submitting their answers, half of the trainees received a prototype \'expert solution\', written in advance by a qualified professional, to compare with their own. This is typical of the practice material student teachers usually receive outside taught classes. The others received AI-generated feedback, which highlighted the correct parts of their solution and flagged aspects they might have improved.</p><p>After completing the six preparatory exercises, the trainees then took two similar follow-up tests -- this time without any feedback. The tests were scored by the researchers, who assessed both their \'diagnostic accuracy\' (whether the trainees had correctly identified cases of dyslexia or ADHD), and their diagnostic reasoning: how well they had used the available evidence to make this judgement.</p><p>The average score for diagnostic reasoning among trainees who had received AI feedback during the six preliminary exercises was an estimated 10 percentage points higher than those who had worked with the pre-written expert solutions.</p><p>The reason for this may be the \'adaptive\' nature of the AI. Because it analysed the trainee teachers\' own work, rather than asking them to compare it with an expert version, the researchers believe the feedback was clearer. There is no evidence, therefore, that AI of this type would improve on one-to-one feedback from a human tutor or high-quality mentor, but the researchers point out that such close support is not always readily available to trainee teachers for repeat practice, especially those on larger courses.</p><p>The study was part of a research project within the Cambridge LMU Strategic Partnership. The AI was developed with support from a team at the Technical University of Darmstadt.</p><p>Riikka Hofmann, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, said: \"Teachers play a critical role in recognising the signs of disorders and learning difficulties in pupils and referring them to specialists. Unfortunately, many of them also feel that they have not had sufficient opportunity to practise these skills. The level of personalised guidance trainee teachers get on German courses is different to the UK, but in both cases it is possible that AI could provide an extra level of individualised feedback to help them develop these essential competencies.\"</p><p>Dr Michael Sailer, from LMU Munich, said: \"Obviously we are not arguing that AI should replace teacher-educators: new teachers still need expert guidance on how to recognise learning difficulties in the first place. It does seem, however, that AI-generated feedback helped these trainees to focus on what they really needed to learn. Where personal feedback is not readily available, it could be an effective substitute.\"</p><p>The study used a natural language processing system: an artificial neural network capable of analysing human language and spotting certain phrases, ideas, hypotheses or evaluations in the trainees\' text.</p><p>It was created using the responses of an earlier cohort of pre-service teachers to a similar exercise. By segmenting and coding these responses, the team \'trained\' the system to recognise the presence or absence of key points in the solutions provided by trainees during the trial. The system then selected pre-written blocks of text to give the participants appropriate feedback.</p><p>In both the preparatory exercises and the follow-up tasks, the trial participants were either asked to work individually, or assigned to randomly-selected pairs. Those who worked alone and received expert solutions during the preparatory exercises scored, on average, 33% for their diagnostic reasoning during the follow-up tasks. By contrast, those who had received AI feedback scored 43%. Similarly, the average score of trainees working in pairs was 35% if they had received the expert solution, but 45% if they had received support from the AI.</p><p>Training with the AI appeared to have no major effect on their ability to diagnose the simulated pupils correctly. Instead, it seems to have made a difference by helping teachers to cut through the various information sources that they were being asked to read, and provide specific evidence of potential learning difficulties. This is the main skill most teachers actually need in the classroom: the task of diagnosing pupils falls to special education teachers, school psychologists, and medical professionals. Teachers need to be able to communicate and evidence their observations to specialists where they have concerns, to help students access appropriate support.</p><p>How far AI could be used more widely to support teachers\' reasoning skills remains an open question, but the research team hope to undertake further studies to explore the mechanisms that made it effective in this case, and assess this wider potential.</p><p>Frank Fischer, Professor of Education and Educational Psychology at LMU Munich, said: \"In large training programmes, which are fairly common in fields such as teacher training or medical education, using AI to support simulation-based learning could have real value. Developing and implementing complex natural language-processing tools for this purpose takes time and effort, but if it helps to improve the reasoning skills of future cohorts of professionals, it may well prove worth the investment.\"</p>','2022-04-11 17:48:41.492682','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Cambridge','A trial which used artificial intelligence to train new teachers to spot potential learning difficulties in pupils found that the approach significantly improved their assessment skills. 178 trainees assessed six fictionalised pupils for potential signs of conditions such as dyslexia and ADHD. Half received feedback in the form of a pre-written \'expert solution\', while the others received feedback from AI. In a subsequent test of the quality of their reasoning when predicting potential learning difficulties in pupils, those who received the AI feedback scored 10 percentage points higher than the other group. The researchers suggest that AI may therefore be an effective substitute for close, personal feedback on teacher training programmes when training these skills, if one-to-one support is not available.\n',1,27,'<li>Michael Sailer, Elisabeth Bauer, Riikka Hofmann, Jan Kiesewetter, Julia Glas, Iryna Gurevych, Frank Fischer. <strong>Adaptive feedback from artificial neural networks facilitates pre-service teachers’ diagnostic reasoning in simulation-based learning</strong>. <em>Learning and Instruction</em>, 2022; 101620 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2022.101620\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.learninstruc.2022.101620</a>\n</li>'),(2012,'Certain personality traits associated with cognitive functioning late in life','certain-personality-traits-associated-with-cognitive-functioning-late-in-life','2022-04-11 17:48:59.148928',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">People who are organized, with high levels of self-discipline, may be less likely to develop mild cognitive impairment as they age, while people who are moody or emotionally unstable are more likely to experience cognitive decline late in life, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.</p><p>The research, published in the <em>Journal of Personality and Social Psychology</em>, focused on the role three of the so-called \"Big Five\" personality traits (conscientiousness, neuroticism and extraversion) play in cognitive functioning later in life.</p><p>\"Personality traits reflect relatively enduring patterns of thinking and behaving, which may cumulatively affect engagement in healthy and unhealthy behaviors and thought patterns across the lifespan,\" said lead author Tomiko Yoneda, PhD, of the University of Victoria. \"The accumulation of lifelong experiences may then contribute to susceptibility of particular diseases or disorders, such as mild cognitive impairment, or contribute to individual differences in the ability to withstand age-related neurological changes.\"</p><p>Individuals who score high in conscientiousness tend to be responsible, organized, hard-working and goal-directed. Those who score high on neuroticism have low emotional stability and have a tendency toward mood swings, anxiety, depression, self-doubt and other negative feelings. Extraverts draw energy from being around others and directing their energies toward people and the outside world. They tend to be enthusiastic, gregarious, talkative and assertive, according to Yoneda.</p><p>To better understand the relationship between personality traits and cognitive impairment later in life, researchers analyzed data from 1,954 participants in the Rush Memory and Aging Project, a longitudinal study of older adults living in the greater Chicago metropolitan region and northeastern Illinois. Participants without a formal diagnosis of dementia were recruited from retirement communities, church groups, and subsidized senior housing facilities beginning in 1997 and continuing to the present. Participants received a personality assessment and agreed to annual assessments of their cognitive abilities. The study included participants who had received at least two annual cognitive assessments or one assessment prior to death.</p><p>Participants who scored either high on conscientiousness or low in neuroticism were significantly less likely to progress from normal cognition to mild cognitive impairment over the course of the study.</p><p>\"Scoring approximately six more points on a conscientiousness scale ranging 0 to 48 was associated with a 22% decreased risk of transitioning from normal cognitive functioning to mild cognitive impairment,\" said Yoneda. \"Additionally, scoring approximately seven more points on a neuroticism scale of 0 to 48 was associated with a 12% increased risk of transition.\"</p><p>Researchers found no association between extraversion and ultimate development of mild cognitive impairment, but they did find that participants who scored high on extraversion -- along with those who scored either high on conscientiousness or low in neuroticism -- tended to maintain normal cognitive functioning longer than others.</p><p>For example, 80-year-old participants who were high in conscientiousness were estimated to live nearly two years longer without cognitive impairment compared with individuals who were low in conscientiousness. Participants high in extraversion were estimated to maintain healthy cognition for approximately a year longer. In contrast, high neuroticism was associated with at least one less year of healthy cognitive functioning, highlighting the harms associated with the long-term experience of perceived stress and emotional instability, according to Yoneda.</p><p>Additionally, individuals lower in neuroticism and higher in extraversion were more likely to recover to normal cognitive function after receiving a previous diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment, suggesting that these traits may be protective even after an individual starts to progress to dementia. In the case of extraversion, this finding may be indicative of the benefits of social interaction for improving cognitive outcomes, according to Yoneda.</p><p>There was no association between any of the personality traits and total life expectancy.</p><p>Yoneda noted that the findings are limited due to the primarily white (87%) and female (74%) makeup of the participants. Participants were also highly educated, with nearly 15 years of education on average. Future research is necessary on more diverse samples of older adults and should include the other two of the big five personality traits (agreeableness and openness) to be more generalizable and provide a broader understanding of the impact of personality traits on cognitive processes and mortality later in life, she said.</p>','2022-04-11 17:48:59.148928','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American Psychological Association','People who are organized, with high levels of self-discipline, may be less likely to develop mild cognitive impairment as they age, while people who are moody or emotionally unstable are more likely to experience cognitive decline late in life, according to new research.\n',1,186,'<li>Tomiko Yoneda, Eileen Graham, Tristen Lozinski, David A. Bennett, Daniel Mroczek, Andrea M. Piccinin, Scott M. Hofer, Graciela Muniz-Terrera. <strong>Personality traits, cognitive states, and mortality in older adulthood</strong>. <em>Journal of Personality and Social Psychology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000418\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1037/pspp0000418</a>\n</li>'),(2013,'Hyperbaric oxygen therapy shows promise for opioid addiction treatment','hyperbaric-oxygen-therapy-shows-promise-for-opioid-addiction-treatment','2022-04-11 17:49:01.930182',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Hyperbaric oxygen therapy may help people being treated for opioid addiction reduce their methadone dose and better manage pain and withdrawal symptoms, according to a pair of studies led by Washington State University scientists.</p><p>The research team recruited participants enrolled in a local opioid treatment program to test the effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy, a treatment that involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized environment.</p><p>Published in the <em>Journal of Addictions Nursing</em>, the first paper describes a pilot study of 31 participants that showed that those who had received hyperbaric oxygen therapy as part of a planned methadone taper were able to maintain a significantly larger dose reduction of 4.3 mg three months after the study, as compared to 0.25 mg in participants who did not receive the therapy. They also reported half the level of withdrawal symptoms experienced by control participants after only one day of hyperbaric oxygen therapy.</p><p>\"While methadone helps people with opioid addiction get stable and resume their normal lives, it\'s still an opioid that they are taking every day,\" said study co-author Matthew Layton, a professor in the WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine and a former opioid treatment program medical director. \"About half of people in treatment want to get off of methadone for various reasons, yet many who have tried have failed and relapsed. Our findings suggest that hyperbaric oxygen therapy could potentially be used as a non-pharmacological tool to help people step down their methadone treatment.\"</p><p>The second study, which was published in Pain Management Nursing, was a small randomized controlled trial of eight participants that looked more closely at withdrawal symptom relief. It found that participants in the hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatment group reported lower pain intensity and drug cravings than control participants who had been given an oxygen mixture equivalent to room air delivered at normal atmospheric pressure. The researchers also saw improvements in other outcomes, such as sleep quality and mood.</p><p>\"While for some the challenge is to get off methadone, others struggle to stay in treatment early on because finding the right dose to stabilize symptoms can be difficult to achieve,\" said first author Marian Wilson, an associate professor in the WSU College of Nursing and an expert on pain management opioid use disorder. \"As a result, a lot of people experience withdrawal symptoms in that adjustment period that can be severe enough to make them resume illegal drug use or drop out of treatment.\"</p><p>Based on the collective findings from the two studies, the researchers are pursuing funding for a clinical trial to confirm their findings in a larger sample of participants, who would be followed for several years.</p><p>The idea for the two studies came from earlier research by one of the WSU researchers that showed that hyperbaric oxygen therapy provided pain relief and reduced physical signs of opioid withdrawal in mice.</p><p>\"We were anxious to see if it would work in people,\" said study co-author Raymond Quock, a professor in the WSU College of Arts and Sciences, who led that work.</p><p>If their findings hold up in a larger clinical trial, hyperbaric oxygen therapy could become a non-pharmacological tool that providers can use to help people manage pain and potentially reduce their opioid use.</p><p>\"Last year, over 100,000 people died as a result of the opioid epidemic within the COVID-19 pandemic,\" said Layton. \"That shows us that opioid addiction is still a very big problem, and we need to have better ways to approach it.\"</p><p>In addition to Layton, Wilson, Quock and others at WSU, collaborators on these studies included Karen Stanek, the medical director for the Spokane Hyperbaric Center and Alvina Jesse, a program manager with the Spokane Regional Health District.</p><p>Funding for this work came from the State of Washington\'s Initiative Measure No. 171, which was administered through the university\'s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Program.</p>','2022-04-11 17:49:01.930182','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Washington State University','Hyperbaric oxygen therapy may help people being treated for opioid addiction reduce their methadone dose and better manage pain and withdrawal symptoms, according to a pair of recent studies. The research team recruited participants enrolled in a local opioid treatment program to test the effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy, a treatment that involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized environment.\n',1,65,'<li>Marian Wilson, Tamara Odom-Maryon, Karen Stanek, Trevor Roush, Joseph Muriungi, Alvina Jesse, Raymond M. Quock, Matthew Layton. <strong>Hyperbaric Oxygen to Assist Adults With Opioid Use Disorder in Reducing Methadone Dose</strong>. <em>Journal of Addictions Nursing</em>, 2022; 33 (1): 27 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/JAN.0000000000000447\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1097/JAN.0000000000000447</a>\n</li>'),(2014,'Researchers identify potential new treatment for metabolic syndrome','researchers-identify-potential-new-treatment-for-metabolic-syndrome','2022-04-11 19:12:21.073561',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Metabolic syndrome increases a person\'s risk for diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, and includes conditions such as obesity, high blood pressure and high blood sugar. In a recent mouse-model study, published in <em>Cell Metabolism</em>, researchers at University Hospitals (UH), Harrington Discovery Institute at UH, and Case Western Reserve University have furthered their progress to develop a drug to treat metabolic syndrome by identifying a receptor that controls appetite and body weight.</p><p>\"In 2016, our lab discovered a hormone called asprosin, which stimulates appetite and increases blood glucose levels by acting on the hypothalamus and the liver,\" explained Atul Chopra, MD, PhD, senior author on the study, Investigator at the Harrington Discovery Institute and Associate Director of the Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Center, Attending Medical Geneticist at UH, and Associate Professor of Medicine, and Genetics and Genomics at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. \"Individuals that have low blood asprosin levels don\'t feel hunger like others do and have lower glucose and insulin levels.\"</p><p>Asprosin stimulates appetite by activating key \"hunger\" neurons of the brain, called AgRP neurons. Asprosin works by binding a protein on the neuron surface called a \"receptor.\" To better understand how receptors work, one might use a key and lock analogy, where a hormone is a key, and its receptor is the lock.</p><p>\"By using a sophisticated technique called mass spectrometry, we identified protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor ? (Ptprd) as the receptor for asprosin,\" said Ila Mishra, PhD, first author on the study and research associate at Harrington Discovery Institute and Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. \"Genetic deletion of Ptprd in mice reduced appetite and body weight, rendering mice unresponsive to asprosin\'s appetite stimulating effect. In other words, Ptprd is necessary for asprosin-mediated appetite stimulation. This result is the crux of our discovery. A receptor is necessary for a hormone to work, and in the case of asprosin\'s ability to control appetite and body weight, that receptor is Ptprd.\"</p><p>The identity of the receptor that allows asprosin to activate AgRP neurons and stimulate appetite was previously a mystery, and this gap in knowledge was a barrier to fully understanding how this hormone works.</p><p>Since the discovery of asprosin, many studies have shown that blood asprosin levels are elevated in patients with metabolic syndrome, leading to weight gain and high blood sugar. The research team has also seen that reduced blood asprosin levels lead to protection from metabolic syndrome by suppressing appetite and blood sugar.</p><p>\"The identification of Ptprd as an asprosin receptor provided us an opportunity to develop a new therapeutic against metabolic syndrome,\" said Dr. Chopra.</p><p>\"We used the discovery of the asprosin-receptor to develop a new drug called a receptor trap,\" explained Dr. Mishra. \"This new drug suppressed appetite, body weight and blood glucose levels in obese mice by sequestering plasma asprosin. From a clinical standpoint, it means that this discovery could potentially yield a brand-new drug against metabolic syndrome.\"</p><p>\"Further, we believe that asprosin performs many more functions in addition to appetite stimulation,\" added Dr. Mishra. \"Identifying these new functions is the next step in our research.\"</p><p>The team also plans to study intracellular mechanisms involved in asprosin-Ptprd signaling, and simultaneously develop the Ptprd receptor trap for potential use in patients with metabolic syndrome.</p>','2022-04-11 19:12:21.073561','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center','Metabolic syndrome increases a person\'s risk for diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, and includes conditions such as obesity, high blood pressure and high blood sugar. In a recent mouse-model study, researchers have furthered their progress to develop a drug to treat metabolic syndrome by identifying a receptor that controls appetite and body weight.\n',1,127,'<li>Ila Mishra, Wei Rose Xie, Juan C. Bournat, Yang He, Chunmei Wang, Elizabeth Sabath Silva, Hailan Liu, Zhiqiang Ku, Yinghua Chen, Bernadette O. Erokwu, Peilin Jia, Zhongming Zhao, Zhiqiang An, Chris A. Flask, Yanlin He, Yong Xu, Atul R. Chopra. <strong>Protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor δ serves as the orexigenic asprosin receptor</strong>. <em>Cell Metabolism</em>, 2022; 34 (4): 549 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2022.02.012\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.cmet.2022.02.012</a>\n</li>'),(2015,'Psilocybin rewires the brain for people with depression, study finds','psilocybin-rewires-the-brain-for-people-with-depression,-study-finds','2022-04-11 19:12:27.917157',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Psilocybin fosters greater connections between different regions of the brain in depressed people, freeing them up from long-held patterns of rumination and excessive self-focus, according to a new study by scientists at UC San Francisco and Imperial College London.</p><p>The discovery points toward a general mechanism through which psychedelics may be acting therapeutically on the brain to alleviate depression and possibly other psychiatric conditions that are marked by fixed patterns of thinking.</p><p>Scientists analyzed fMRI brain scans from nearly 60 people who had participated in two psilocybin trials. In the first one, all the participants had treatment-resistant depression and knew they were being given psilocybin. In the second one, the participants were depressed but not as severely, and they were not told whether they had been given psilocybin or a placebo that turned out to be escitalopram, an SSRI antidepressant. In addition to the drugs, all the participants received the same type of psychotherapy.</p><p>The scans, which were done before and after treatment, showed the psilocybin treatment reduced connections within brain areas that are tightly connected in depression, including the default mode, salience, and executive networks, and increased connections to other regions of the brain that had not been well integrated.</p><p>Participants were also less emotionally avoidant and their cognitive functioning got better. The improvement in their depressive symptoms correlated with changes to their brains, and these changes lasted until the study ended three weeks after the second psilocybin dose. No such changes were seen in the brains of those who received escitalopram, suggesting that psilocybin acts differently on the brain than SSRIs.</p><p>Psilocybin and other serotonergic psychedelics like ayahuasca affect 5-HT2A receptors, which are plentiful in brain networks that become overactive in depression. One hypothesis is that the drugs briefly disrupt these connections, giving them a chance to reform in new ways in the ensuing days and weeks.</p><p>\"In previous studies we had seen a similar effect in the brain when people were scanned whilst on a psychedelic, but here we\'re seeing it weeks after treatment for depression, which suggests a carry-over of the acute drug action,\" said Robin Carhart-Harris, PhD, who directs the Neuroscape Psychedelics Division at UCSF and is the senior author of the study, which appears April 11, 2022, in <em>Nature Medicine</em>.</p><p>\"We don\'t yet know how long the changes in brain activity seen with psilocybin therapy last, and we need to do more research to understand this,\" said Carhart-Harris, who is the Ralph Metzner Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry, and Behavioral Sciences and a member of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences. \"We do know that some people relapse, and it may be that after a while their brains revert to the rigid patterns of activity we see in depression.\"</p><p>The authors caution that while these findings are encouraging, patients with depression should not attempt to self-medicate with psilocybin. The trials took place under controlled, clinical conditions, using a regulated dose formulated in a laboratory, and involved extensive psychological support before, during, and after dosing.</p><p>But the study points to a mechanism that, if it holds up, may explain both how psilocybin helps to alleviate depression and potentially other debilitating psychiatric conditions.</p><p>\"For the first time we find that psilocybin works differently from conventional antidepressants -- making the brain more flexible and fluid, and less entrenched in the negative thinking patterns associated with depression,\" said David Nutt, DM, head of the Imperial Centre for Psychedelic Research. \"This supports our initial predictions and confirms psilocybin could be a real alternative approach to depression treatments.\"</p><p>Disclosures, as well as the full list of authors and funding are available in the paper.</p>','2022-04-11 19:12:27.917157','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - San Francisco','Psilocybin fosters greater connections between different regions of the brain in depressed people, freeing them up from long-held patterns of rumination and excessive self-focus, according to a new study.\n',1,39,'<li>Richard E. Daws, Christopher Timmermann, Bruna Giribaldi, James D. Sexton, Matthew B. Wall, David Erritzoe, Leor Roseman, David Nutt, Robin Carhart-Harris. <strong>Increased global integration in the brain after psilocybin therapy for depression</strong>. <em>Nature Medicine</em>, April 11, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01744-z\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41591-022-01744-z</a>\n</li>'),(2016,'Engineered bacteria could help protect \'good\' gut microbes from antibiotics','engineered-bacteria-could-help-protect-\'good\'-gut-microbes-from-antibiotics','2022-04-11 19:12:30.276482',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Antibiotics are life-saving drugs, but they can also harm the beneficial microbes that live in the human gut. Following antibiotic treatment, some patients are at risk of developing inflammation or opportunistic infections such as <em>Clostridiodes difficile</em>. Indiscriminate use of antibiotics on gut microbes can also contribute to the spread of resistance to the drugs.</p><p>In an effort to reduce those risks, MIT engineers have developed a new way to help protect the natural flora of the human digestive tract. They took a strain of bacteria that is safe for human consumption and engineered it to safely produce an enzyme that breaks down a class of antibiotics called beta-lactams. These include ampicillin, amoxicillin, and other commonly used drugs.</p><p>When this \"living biotherapeutic\" is given along with antibiotics, it protects the microbiota in the gut but allows the levels of antibiotics circulating in the bloodstream to remain high, the researchers found in a study of mice.</p><p>\"This work shows that synthetic biology can be harnessed to create a new class of engineered therapeutics for reducing the adverse effects of antibiotics,\" says James Collins, the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering and Science in MIT\'s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES) and Department of Biological Engineering, and the senior author of the new study.</p><p>Andres Cubillos-Ruiz PhD \'15, a research scientist at IMES and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, is the lead author of the paper, which appears today in <em>Nature Biomedical Engineering</em>. Other authors include MIT graduate students Miguel Alcantar and Pablo Cardenas, Wyss Institute staff scientist Nina Donghia, and Broad Institute research scientist Julian Avila-Pacheco.</p><p><strong>Protecting the gut</strong></p><p>Over the past two decades, research has revealed that the microbes in the human gut play important roles in not only metabolism but also immune function and nervous system function.</p><p>\"Throughout your life, these gut microbes assemble into a highly diverse community that accomplishes important functions in your body,\" Cubillos-Ruiz says. \"The problem comes when interventions such as medications or particular kinds of diets affect the composition of the microbiota and create an altered state, called dysbiosis. Some microbial groups disappear, and the metabolic activity of others increases. This unbalance can lead to various health issues.\"</p><p>One major complication that can occur is infection of <em>C. difficile</em>, a microbe that commonly lives in the gut but doesn\'t usually cause harm. When antibiotics kill off the strains that compete with <em>C. difficile</em>, however, these bacteria can take over and cause diarrhea and colitis. <em>C. difficile</em> infects about 500,000 people every year in the United States, and causes around 15,000 deaths.</p><p>Doctors sometimes prescribe probiotics (mixtures of beneficial bacteria) to people taking antibiotics, but those probiotics are usually also susceptible to antibiotics, and they don\'t fully replicate the native microbiota found in the gut.</p><p>\"Standard probiotics cannot compare to the diversity that the native microbes have,\" Cubillos-Ruiz says. \"They cannot accomplish the same functions as the native microbes that you have nurtured throughout your life.\"</p><p>To protect the microbiota from antibiotics, the researchers decided to use modified bacteria. They engineered a strain of bacteria called <em>Lactococcus lactis</em>, which is normally used in cheese production, to deliver an enzyme that breaks down beta-lactam antibiotics. These drugs make up about 60 percent of the antibiotics prescribed in the United States.</p><p>When these bacteria are delivered orally, they transiently populate the intestines, where they secrete the enzyme, which is called beta-lactamase. This enzyme then breaks down antibiotics that reach the intestinal tract. When antibiotics are given orally, the drugs enter the bloodstream primarily from the stomach, so the drugs can still circulate in the body at high levels. This approach could also be used along with antibiotics that are injected, which also end up reaching the intestine. After their job is finished, the engineered bacteria are excreted through the digestive tract.</p><p>Using engineered bacteria that degrade antibiotics poses unique safety requirements: Beta-lactamase enzymes confer antibiotic resistance to harboring cells and their genes can readily spread between different bacteria. To address this, the researchers used a synthetic biology approach to recode the way the bacterium synthetizes the enzyme. They broke up the gene for beta-lactamase into two pieces, each of which encodes a fragment of the enzyme. These gene segments are located on different pieces of DNA, making it very unlikely that both gene segments would be transferred to another bacterial cell.</p><p>These beta-lactamase fragments are exported outside the cell where they reassemble, restoring the enzymatic function. Since the beta-lactamase is now free to diffuse in the surrounding environment, its activity becomes a \"public good\" for the gut bacterial communities. This prevents the engineered cells from gaining an advantage over the native gut microbes.</p><p>\"Our biocontainment strategy enables the delivery of antibiotic-degrading enzymes to the gut without the risk of horizontal gene transfer to other bacteria or the acquisition of an added competitive advantage by the live biotherapeutic,\" Cubillos-Ruiz says.</p><p><strong>Maintaining microbial diversity</strong></p><p>To test their approach, the researchers gave the mice two oral doses of the engineered bacteria for every injection of ampicillin. The engineered bacteria made their way to the intestine and began releasing beta-lactamase. In those mice, the researchers found that the amount of ampicillin circulating the bloodstream was as high as that in mice who did not receive the engineered bacteria.</p><p>In the gut, mice that received engineered bacteria maintained a much higher level of microbial diversity compared to mice that received only antibiotics. In those mice, microbial diversity levels dropped dramatically after they received ampicillin. Furthermore, none of the mice that received the engineered bacteria developed opportunistic <em>C. difficile</em> infections, while all of the mice who received only antibiotics showed high levels of <em>C. difficile</em> in the gut.</p><p>\"This is a strong demonstration that this approach can protect the gut microbiota, while preserving the efficacy of the antibiotic, as you\'re not modifying the levels in the bloodstream,\" Cubillos-Ruiz says.</p><p>The researchers also found that eliminating the evolutionary pressure of antibiotic treatment made it much less likely for the microbes of the gut to develop antibiotic resistance after treatment. In contrast, they did find many genes for antibiotic resistance in the microbes that survived in mice who received antibiotics but not the engineered bacteria. Those genes can be passed to harmful bacteria, worsening the problem of antibiotic resistance.</p><p>The researchers now plan to begin developing a version of the treatment that could be tested in people at high risk of developing acute diseases that stem from antibiotic-induced gut dysbiosis, and they hope that eventually, it could be used to protect anyone who needs to take antibiotics for infections outside the gut.</p><p>\"If the antibiotic action is not needed in the gut, then you need to protect the microbiota. This is similar to when you get an X-ray, you wear a lead apron to protect the rest of your body from the ionizing radiation,\" Cubillos-Ruiz says. \"No previous intervention could offer this level of protection. With our new technology we can make antibiotics safer by preserving beneficial gut microbes and by reducing the chances of emergence of new antibiotic resistant variants.\"</p><p>The research was funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, the Wyss Institute, and a National Science Foundation graduate research fellowship.</p>','2022-04-11 19:12:30.276482','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Massachusetts Institute of Technology','Researchers have engineered a strain of bacteria that can help protect the natural flora of the human digestive tract from antibiotics and curb the emergence of antimicrobial resistance.\n',1,52,'<li>Cubillos-Ruiz, A., Alcantar, M.A., Donghia, N.M. et al. <strong>An engineered live biotherapeutic for the prevention of antibiotic-induced dysbiosis</strong>. <em>Nat. Biomed. Eng</em>, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41551-022-00871-9\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41551-022-00871-9</a>\n</li>'),(2017,'Understanding \'smart,\' spitting archerfishes','understanding-\'smart,\'-spitting-archerfishes','2022-04-11 19:12:39.120028',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Archerfishes are the anti-aircraft gunners of the aquatic world. The fishes are famed for their amazing ability to shoot down land-based insects midflight with highly accurate streams of water they project from their mouths.</p><p>Yet, scientifically speaking, not enough really has been known about archerfish: What makes an archerfish? How many species are there? What other fishes are closely related? What fishes did they descend from?</p><p>Now, a new paper appearing in the peer-reviewed journal Integrative Organismal Biology from researchers at the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum is the most thorough examination ever produced of the evolutionary history and anatomical variation of archerfishes, which are also known by the scientific name Toxotidae.</p><p>\"Archerfishes are a small group of fishes that predominantly live in Southeast Asia and Australia and a lot of the regions in between,\" said lead author Matthew Girard, a research affiliate with the KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum and a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Fishes at the Smithsonian Institution\'s National Museum of Natural History. \"Sometimes people think of archerfishes as a famous group because they can spit water out of their mouths, and they are often studied just because they\'re pretty smart animals -- they have to calculate for refraction, and they\'re able to hit things that are on the wing as they\'re flying overhead.\"</p><p>Despite archerfishes\' renown among ichthyologists and aquarium enthusiasts, until now not much scholarly work has been performed on them.</p><p>\"That\'s really where our study comes in,\" Girard said. \"We looked at how these fishes are related and asked, \'How did this amazing mechanism of allowing them to actually be able to spit come to evolve?\' We had some ideas of what other kinds of fishes they were related to, but for the first time we\'ve generated a hypothesis of how all these species of archerfish are related to each other. We didn\'t even really know if all of them could shoot. The studies that have looked at how they\'re shooting or how smart they are, they\'re generally using archerfish that are found in the aquarium trade -- but there\'s some rare ones out there, too. So, we were not only answering questions about how they\'re related and how this shooting mechanism evolved, but can all of them even shoot in the first place, or is there variation in there? We did find that they all can shoot; they all at least have the structures in their mouth to be able to shoot, but there are differences among them.\"</p><p>For the first time, the paper establishes an authoritative family tree of archerfishes, allowing researchers to trace through genetics and morphology how the spitting specialization may have evolved over time.</p><p>\"There are other fish that eat insects and some that will jump out of water, but I would say there\'s nothing really like this,\" said co-author Leo Smith, associate curator at KU\'s Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum. \"There\'s a potentially apocryphal story, which is that back in the mid-1800s in India, archerfishes would shoot out the colonizers\' cigarettes, just like if there was like a lightning bug. They would shoot them out and drive people crazy and that\'s how the Western Europeans discovered the thing that was already there, that everybody there already knew about -- but there are stories that they will spit out cigarettes.\"</p><p>Girard sought tissue samples and specimens of archerfishes from institutions and natural history museums around the world -- unheralded, often grueling work -- and then analyzed their structures and genetics to better understand the group.</p><p>For instance, Girard, Smith and their co-authors found the oral structures of archerfishes support a blowpipe-mechanism hypothesis, but soft-tissue oral structures may also play a role in shooting.</p><p>\"Just because other fish can move water, it\'s not anything like this,\" Smith said. \"I equate it to, \'I could put a trumpet in my mouth, and I suppose I could make noise come out of it, but not like Miles Davis.\' It\'s like a fundamentally different thing, too, a really remarkable specialization for catching insects.\"</p><p>Further, the research team determined archerfishes have a closely related \"sister group\" of fishes, called beach salmon -- and found they, too, had \"relevant shooting features in the oral cavity,\" suggesting shooting water at prey could be what evolutionary biologists dub a co-opted or exapted trait.</p><p>\"We think of adaptations like, for example, a sailfish that has this really beautiful sail on their dorsal fin -- but a lot of fishes have dorsal fins and what they\'ve done is kind of modify that dorsal fin to fit some other need,\" Girard said. \"If we look at the group that\'s most closely related to archerfish, it\'s already eating hard-body things. So, archerfish must have had all the structures that would allow that to happen, and all they had to do was kind of modify those to be able to shoot. So that\'s what that co-option is -- it\'s really a nuance saying that the necessary parts were already there and all they did was modify a few things to allow this to happen.\"</p><p>Girard and Smith\'s co-authors on the new paper are M.P. Davis of St. Cloud State University; H.H. Tan of the National University of Singapore; D.J. Wedd of Charles Darwin University; P. Chakrabarty of Louisiana State University; W.B. Ludt of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County; and A.P. Summers of the University of Washington\'s Friday Harbor Laboratories.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-04-11 19:12:39.120028','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Kansas','A new article thoroughly examines the evolutionary history and anatomical variation of archerfishes.\n',1,116,'<li>M G Girard, M P Davis, H H Tan, D J Wedd, P Chakrabarty, W B Ludt, A P Summers, W L Smith. <strong>Phylogenetics of archerfishes (Toxotidae) and evolution of the toxotid shooting apparatus</strong>. <em>Integrative Organismal Biology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/iob/obac013\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1093/iob/obac013</a>\n</li>'),(2018,'New tool reveals how immune cells find their targets','new-tool-reveals-how-immune-cells-find-their-targets','2022-04-11 19:42:08.921985',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The human body has millions of unique B and T cells that roam the body, looking for microbial invaders. These immune cells\' ability to recognize harmful microbes is critical to successfully fighting off infection.</p><p>MIT biological engineers have now devised an experimental tool that allows them to precisely pick out interactions between a particular immune cell and its target antigen. The new technique, which uses engineered viruses to present many different antigens to huge populations of immune cells, could allow large-scale screens of such interactions.</p><p>\"This technique leads the way to understand immunity much closer to how the immune system itself actually works, will help researchers make sense of complex immune recognition in a variety of diseases, and could accelerate the development of more effective vaccines and immunotherapies,\" says Michael Birnbaum, an associate professor of biological engineering at MIT, a member of MIT\'s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and the senior author of the study.</p><p>Former MIT graduate student Connor Dobson is the lead author of the paper, which appears today in <em>Nature Methods</em>.</p><p><strong>A simple screen for a complex system</strong></p><p>Both B and T cells play critical roles in launching an immune response. When a T cell encounters its target, it starts proliferating to produce an army of identical cells that can attack infected cells. And B cells that encounter their target begin producing antibodies that help recruit other components of the immune system to clear the infection.</p><p>Scientists who study the immune system have several tools to help them identify specific antigen-immune cell interactions. However, these tools generally only allow for the study of a large pool of antigens exposed to one B or T cell, or a large pool of immune cells encountering a small number of antigens.</p><p>\"In your body, you have millions of unique T cells, and they could recognize billions of possible antigens. All of the tools that have been developed to this point are really designed to look at one side of that diversity at a time,\" Birnbaum says.</p><p>The MIT team set out to design a new tool that would let them screen huge libraries of both antigens and immune cells at the same time, allowing them to pick out any specific interactions within the vast realm of possibilities.</p><p>To create a simple way to screen so many possible interactions, the researchers engineered a specialized form of a lentivirus, a type of virus that scientists often use to deliver genes because it can integrate pieces of DNA into host cells. These viruses have an envelope protein called VSV-G that can bind to receptors on the surface of many types of human cells, including immune cells, and infect them.</p><p>For this study, the researchers modified the VSV-G protein so that it cannot infect a cell on its own, instead relying on an antigen of the researchers\' choosing. This modified version of VSV-G can only help the lentivirus get into a cell if the paired antigen binds to a human B or T-cell receptor that recognizes the antigen.</p><p>Once the virus enters, it integrates itself into the host cell\'s genome. Therefore, by sequencing the genome of all the cells in the sample, the researchers can discover both the antigen expressed by the virus that infected the cell and the sequence of the T or B-cell receptor that allowed it to enter.</p><p>\"In this way, we can use viral infection itself as a way to match up and then identify antigen-immune cell parings,\" Birnbaum says.</p><p><strong>Interactions identified</strong></p><p>To demonstrate the accuracy of their technique, the researchers created a pool of viruses with antigens from 100 different viruses, including influenza, cytomegalovirus, and Epstein-Barr virus. They screened these viruses against about 400,000 T cells and showed that the technique could correctly pick out antigen-T-cell receptor pairings that had been previously identified.</p><p>The researchers also screened two different B-cell receptors against 43 antigens, including antigens from HIV and the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2.</p><p>In future studies, Birnbaum hopes to screen thousands of antigens against B and T cell populations. \"Our ideal would be to screen entire viruses or families of viruses, to be able to get a readout of your entire immune system in one experiment,\" he says.</p><p>In one study that is now ongoing, Birnbaum\'s lab is working with researchers at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard to study how different people\'s immune systems respond to viruses such as HIV and SARS-CoV-2. Such studies could help to reveal why some people naturally fight off certain viruses better than others, and potentially lead to the development of more effective vaccines.</p><p>The researchers envision that this technology could also have other uses. Birnbaum\'s lab is now working on adapting the same viruses to deliver engineered genes to target cells. In that case, the viruses would carry not only a targeting molecule but also a novel gene that would be incorporated exclusively into cells that have the right target. This could offer a way to selectively deliver genes that promote cell death into cancer cells, for example.</p><p>\"We built this tool to look for antigens, but there\'s nothing particularly special about antigens,\" Birnbaum says. \"You could potentially use it to go into specific cells in order to do gene modifications for cell and gene therapy.\"</p><p>The research was funded by the Koch Institute Frontier Award program, the Packard Foundation, the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, the Michelson Medical Research Foundation, Pfizer, Inc., the Department of Defense, the National Institutes of Health, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, a Siebel Scholarship, a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Doctoral Foreign Study Award, a graduate fellowship from the Ludwig Center at MIT, a Medical Scientist Training Program grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, a Technology Impact Award from the Cancer Research Institute, the Pew-Stewart Scholarship program, and the Koch Institute Support (core) Grant from the National Cancer Institute.</p>','2022-04-11 19:42:08.921985','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Massachusetts Institute of Technology','Biological engineers have devised a new experimental tool that allows them to precisely pick out interactions between a particular B or T cell and its target antigen.\n',1,91,'<li>Connor S. Dobson, Anna N. Reich, Stephanie Gaglione, Blake E. Smith, Ellen J. Kim, Jiayi Dong, Larance Ronsard, Vintus Okonkwo, Daniel Lingwood, Michael Dougan, Stephanie K. Dougan, Michael E. Birnbaum. <strong>Antigen identification and high-throughput interaction mapping by reprogramming viral entry</strong>. <em>Nature Methods</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41592-022-01436-z\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41592-022-01436-z</a>\n</li>'),(2019,'Time-lapse images as the living brain responds to experiences','time-lapse-images-as-the-living-brain-responds-to-experiences','2022-04-11 19:42:14.187439',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has transformed the field of neuroscience over the past 40 years, enabling scientists to create clear snapshots of living brain structures and even detect functional changes associated with certain activities.</p><p>Unlike X-rays or CT scans, MRI does not rely on beams of radiation. Instead, powerful magnetic fields and radio waves are used to temporarily align the hydrogen atoms in the body\'s water molecules, meaning it can create a clear picture of soft tissues, like the brain.</p><p>But a newer technology developed by UNM neuroscientist Elaine Bearer, MD, PhD, and collaborators at California Institute of Technology and the University of Southern California takes MRI one step further.</p><p>In a paper published in the journal <em>NMR in Biomedicine</em>, they report on the use of manganese, a trace mineral found throughout the body, as a contrast agent with MRI that enables a \"time-lapse\" series of images revealing the brain\'s response to specific experiences.</p><p>\"This report emphasizes the power of manganese-based contrast to study dynamic transitions throughout the brain,\" said Bearer, a professor in the UNM Department of Pathology. \"The brain is not a static thing. This MRI technique images the slow consequences of an experience over time. It\'s enabling us to peer more deeply into the amazing complexity of thinking and feeling.\"</p><p>In manganese-enhanced MRI (MEMRI), small amounts of manganese enter neurons via the same cellular pathway as calcium, which plays a key role in brain signaling. As manganese ions move through the neuron they highlight the cell\'s activities, highlighting the projections via which it communicates with adjacent neurons.</p><p>\"This exciting emergent methodology captures the brain\'s function during normal behavior, which otherwise cannot be known at this scale,\" said Taylor Uselman, a PhD student in Bearer\'s lab who co-authored the paper. Christopher Medina, MD, a UNM School of Medicine graduate, was also a co-author.</p><p>\"Our publication also provides critical insight into safety considerations for the use of the contrast agent,\" Uselman said. \"We give a number of examples of how MEMRI reveals the development of the hearing system, as well as Down syndrome, Alzheimer\'s disease and anxiety disorders.\"</p><p>Standard MRI scans have great diagnostic value for detecting tumors or vascular abnormalities in the brain, and they can reveal that changes in certain brain structures are associated with specific behaviors, such as meditation or learning a second language. But they don\'t show what the brain is actually doing, Bearer says.</p><p>\"The MR that we standardly do for human diagnosis is just an image of your anatomy,\" she says. Neuroscientists also use a technique called functional MRI that measures cerebral blood flow, based on the idea that highly active regions of the brain use more oxygen.</p><p>However, the blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal is weaker, requiring computational analysis, and it mixes both vascular and neural activity, Bearer said. \"With BOLD, what you\'re detecting is a proxy for neural activity.\"</p><p>Bearer and partners Harry Gray at Caltech and Russell Jacobs at USC have been exploring the potential of MEMRI technology for some time. In 2020, together with Uselman and post-doctoral fellow Daniel Barto, they reported on the use of MEMRI to demonstrate how exposure to a frightening stimulus evolves into chronic anxiety.</p><p>\"The major things that made it possible to learn from this technology was the computational analysis I did with my students at UNM,\" Bearer said. \"This review is going to be a go-to reference for all investigators, especially when using this emergent technology.\"</p>','2022-04-11 19:42:14.187439','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center','Researchers use manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging to capture time-lapse images of the living brain.\n',1,162,'<li>Taylor W. Uselman, Christopher S. Medina, Harry B. Gray, Russell E. Jacobs, Elaine L. Bearer. <strong>Longitudinal manganese‐enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of neural projections and activity</strong>. <em>NMR in Biomedicine</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/nbm.4675\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/nbm.4675</a>\n</li>'),(2020,'COVID-19 vaccine protects patients with inflammatory bowel disease from SARS-CoV-2','covid-19-vaccine-protects-patients-with-inflammatory-bowel-disease-from-sars-cov-2','2022-04-11 19:42:18.109209',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">COVID-19 vaccines taken by people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which affects millions worldwide, safely and effectively protects them from the SARS-CoV-2 virus, a Rutgers study finds.</p><p>The comprehensive review, published in the journal <em>Alimentary Pharmacology &amp; Therapeutics</em>, focused on all studies describing the response of patients with IBD who were administered a COVID-19 vaccine. People with IBD are commonly treated with drugs that suppress the immune system and have reported concerns over whether such treatments might weaken their response to the vaccine.</p><p>\"We wanted to demonstrate in a systematic way that the vaccines will safely protect our IBD patients from COVID-19,\" said study author Abhishek Bhurwal, an Advanced IBD Fellow in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. \"Our systematic review and meta-analysis confirmed that the vaccines are safe and work well in our patients.\"</p><p>An estimated 3.1 million adults in the United States have been diagnosed with IBD, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The disease, which includes Crohn\'s disease and ulcerative colitis, causes chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. The numbers of such patients, Bhurwal said, are growing.</p><p>The study focused on four key aspects of COVID-19 vaccination of IBD patients: the strength of their immune response to the vaccine; the occurrence of breakthrough infections after taking the vaccine; the occurrence of adverse events to the vaccine; and whether differing IBD treatments affected vaccine effectiveness.</p><p>The analysis found the following:</p><p>Because of their treatment with immunosuppressive drugs, IBD patients are more susceptible to infectious disease than the general population. As a result, they have been encouraged to receive COVID-19 vaccines.</p><p>\"Because members of the IBD population are immunocompromised, it was important to document that the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines work for them,\" Bhurwal said. \"With this analysis, we can say that two doses of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are safe and effective in the IBD population. But we need further studies regarding booster doses and COVID variants.\"</p><p>Other Rutgers authors in the study were from the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School: Steven Brant, Lea Ann Chen, Carlos Minacapelli and Darren Seril.</p>','2022-04-11 19:42:18.109209','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Rutgers University','COVID-19 vaccines taken by people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which affects millions worldwide, safely and effectively protects them from the SARS-Cov-2 virus, a study finds.\n',1,74,'<li>Abhishek Bhurwal, Hemant Mutneja, Vikas Bansal, Akshay Goel, Shilpa Arora, Bashar Attar, Carlos D. Minacapelli, Gursimran Kochhar, Lea Ann Chen, Steve Brant, Darren Seril. <strong>Effectiveness and safety of SARS‐CoV‐2 vaccine in Inflammatory Bowel Disease patients: A systematic review, meta‐analysis and meta‐regression</strong>. <em>Alimentary Pharmacology &amp; Therapeutics</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/apt.16913\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1111/apt.16913</a>\n</li>'),(2021,'Light, oxygen turn waste plastics into useful benzoic acid','light,-oxygen-turn-waste-plastics-into-useful-benzoic-acid','2022-04-11 20:29:10.374777',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Chemists at Cornell University have discovered a way to use light and oxygen to upcycle polystyrene -- a type of plastic found in many common items -- into benzoic acid, a product stocked in undergraduate and high school chemistry labs and also used in fragrances, food preservatives, and other ubiquitous products.</p><p>Styrofoam egg cartons, hard plastic compact disc cases, red drinking cups and many other common products are composed of polystyrene, which makes up a third of landfill waste worldwide.</p><p>A team led by Erin Stache, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell, found the reaction can even take place in a sunny window.</p><p>Their paper, \"Chemical Upcycling of Commercial Polystyrene via Catalyst-Controlled Photooxidation\" published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.</p><p>In line with her lab\'s mission to tackle environmental concerns through chemistry, the new process is mild, climate-friendly and scalable to commercial waste streams, Stache said.</p><p>Moreover, the process is tolerant of additives inherent in a flow of consumer waste, including dirt, dyes and other types of plastics.</p><p>Last summer, Stache\'s lab ran some degradation experiments in a sunny window; in a place with strong year-round sunlight, the reaction could be done outdoors.</p><p>\"The advantage of using light is you can get exquisite control over the chemical process based on some of the catalysts we\'ve developed to harness the white light. If we can use sunlight to drive the process, that\'s a win-win,\" Stache said, noting that existing polymer recycling requires heating a polymer for melting and processing, which usually requires fossil fuel.</p><p>To test the tolerance of the process to other materials mixed with the PS plastic, the researchers used several products, ranging from packaging materials to coffee cup lids.</p><p>They found that three items -- a white coffee cup lid, Styrofoam and a clear lid -- degraded efficiently. A black coffee cup lid degraded less efficiently, possibly because the black dyes inhibit light penetration, Stache said.</p><p>\"These results signify that our system could efficiently break down commercial samples of PS, even with additional composite and insoluble material,\" she said.</p><p>To demonstrate scalability and potential commercial application, the researchers created a setup with two syringe pumps and two LED lamps in a 3D-printed photoreactor. The efficiency of the breakdown process at the large scale was similar to that in small batches.</p><p>\"If we can make the process even more efficient, we can think about how to commercialize it and use it to address waste streams,\" Stache said.</p><p>This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation.</p>','2022-04-11 20:29:10.374777','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Cornell University','Chemists have discovered a way to use light and oxygen to upcycle polystyrene -- a type of plastic found in many common items -- into benzoic acid, a product stocked in undergraduate and high school chemistry labs and also used in fragrances, food preservatives, and other ubiquitous products.\n',1,30,'<li>Sewon Oh, Erin E. Stache. <strong>Chemical Upcycling of Commercial Polystyrene via Catalyst-Controlled Photooxidation</strong>. <em>Journal of the American Chemical Society</em>, 2022; 144 (13): 5745 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jacs.2c01411\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1021/jacs.2c01411</a>\n</li>'),(2022,'Even in a virtual classroom, preschoolers can gain reading skills','even-in-a-virtual-classroom,-preschoolers-can-gain-reading-skills','2022-04-11 21:09:59.628271',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">When the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools nationwide, students of all ages -- from high-schoolers in Advanced Placement classes to preschoolers getting the hang of the ABCs -- shifted to remote learning on a screen.</p><p>And while learning to read in an online setting may seem a tall order, a new study by the University of Washington\'s Institute for Learning &amp; Brain Sciences finds that children can develop key reading skills in a virtual classroom with other students. Researchers say their \"Reading Camp\" program demonstrates not only the effectiveness of the approach, but also the potential to reach larger numbers of students remotely, by necessity or by choice.</p><p>\"Children are ready to learn to read at the age of 5. But the pandemic robbed children of the opportunity for in-person reading instruction. What we\'ve shown here is that an online Reading Camp designed to promote learning socially works phenomenally well. An online camp can be used all over the world by children anywhere, and that is truly exciting,\" said faculty author Patricia Kuhl, co-director of I-LABS and a UW professor of speech and hearing sciences.</p><p>The study, published online March 31 in <em>Frontiers in Human Neuroscience</em>, details a two-week reading program, which teachers provided remotely to 83 5-year-olds beginning in fall 2020.</p><p>Learning to read involves a series of steps, from recognizing distinguished sounds in a language (phonological awareness), to identifying the names of individual letters and how they sound (letter-sound knowledge), to decoding words and their meanings.</p><p>The study finds that the participants demonstrated learning of specific reading skills, such as phonological awareness and letter-sound knowledge, when compared to a control group of children who did not receive the instruction.</p><p>I-LABS researchers, including study co-author Jason Yeatman (now at Stanford University), in 2019 offered a two-week reading summer camp to teach early literacy skills to pre-kindergarteners and measure brain activity before and after instruction. With the onset of the pandemic in spring 2020, researchers decided to adapt the in-person Reading Camp into an online version over Zoom.</p><p>Ahead of the remote camp, researchers mailed parents a kit of materials, which included headphones, worksheets and books, as well as Play-Doh, toys and other fun items for use in the lessons. Children used colored plastic eggs from the kit, for example, to \"vote\" for the right answer in their virtual classroom, rather than raising a hand.</p><p>The Reading Camp grouped children into six-person classrooms, each with two instructors trained in the specific skills lessons. Sessions lasted three hours a day, with several breaks, short lessons broken up by activities, and ending with a story time. The classrooms were often broken into even smaller, three-student breakout rooms, each with a teacher to focus the lessons and games.</p><p>\"This shows that we can actually teach kids online if we\'re using the correct methodology, keeping them engaged, and they\'re interacting socially with their peers and teachers,\" said Yael Weiss-Zruya, a research scientist at I-LABS and the study\'s first author. \"Combining all of this made it successful.\"</p><p>Children in both the Reading Camp and control groups took several standardized and non-standardized tests to assess knowledge of letters, sounds and words. The results showed that the Reading Camp participants improved in all of the reading skills measured, and their phonological awareness and knowledge of lowercase letters and sounds, in particular, more than the children in the control group.</p><p>\"Frankly, I had my doubts about whether 5-year-olds could learn to read online without a live tutor. But when I saw these 5-year-olds on Zoom laughing and encouraging each other to listen and hold up the right color egg, I was amazed. Their social connections to each other were obvious, and their learning was incredible. They called each other by name and seemed very eager to see each other on the screen,\" Kuhl said.</p><p>Researchers plan to hold additional online reading camps, and to add brain scans prior to and after the camps to evaluate how learning to read affects brain development.</p><p>The study was funded by the Bezos Family Foundation, the Overdeck Family Foundation, and the Petunia Charitable Fund.</p><p>Additional co-authors were Suzanne Ender, Liesbeth Gijbels, Hailley Loop, Julia Mizrahi and Bo Woo, all of I-LABS.</p>','2022-04-11 21:09:59.628271','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Washington','A new study finds that children can develop key reading skills in a virtual classroom with other students.\n',1,110,'<li>Yael Weiss, Jason D. Yeatman, Suzanne Ender, Liesbeth Gijbels, Hailley Loop, Julia C. Mizrahi, Bo Y. Woo, Patricia K. Kuhl. <strong>Can an Online Reading Camp Teach 5-Year-Old Children to Read?</strong> <em>Frontiers in Human Neuroscience</em>, 2022; 16 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2022.793213\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.3389/fnhum.2022.793213</a>\n</li>'),(2023,'New transistor could cut 5% from world’s digital energy budget','new-transistor-could-cut-5%-from-world’s-digital-energy-budget','2022-04-11 21:10:08.815676',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A new spin on one of the 20th century\'s smallest but grandest inventions, the transistor, could help feed the world\'s ever-growing appetite for digital memory while slicing up to 5% of the energy from its power-hungry diet.</p><p>Following years of innovations from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln\'s Christian Binek and University at Buffalo\'s Jonathan Bird and Keke He, the physicists recently teamed up to craft the first magneto-electric transistor.</p><p>Along with curbing the energy consumption of any microelectronics that incorporate it, the team\'s design could reduce the number of transistors needed to store certain data by as much as 75%, said Nebraska physicist Peter Dowben, leading to smaller devices. It could also lend those microelectronics steel-trap memory that remembers exactly where its users leave off, even after being shut down or abruptly losing power.</p><p>\"The implications of this most recent demonstration are profound,\" said Dowben, who co-authored a recent paper on the work that graced the cover of the journal <em>Advanced Materials</em><em>.</em></p><p>Many millions of transistors line the surface of every modern integrated circuit, or microchip, which itself is manufactured in staggering numbers -- roughly 1 trillion in 2020 alone -- from the industry-favorite semiconducting material, silicon. By regulating the flow of electric current within a microchip, the tiny transistor effectively acts as a nanoscopic on-off switch that\'s essential to writing, reading and storing data as the 1s and 0s of digital technology.</p><p>But silicon-based microchips are nearing their practical limits, Dowben said. Those limits have the semiconductor industry investigating and funding every promising alternative it can.</p><p>\"The traditional integrated circuit is facing some serious problems,\" said Dowben, Charles Bessey Professor of physics and astronomy at Nebraska. \"There is a limit to how much smaller it can get. We\'re basically down to the range where we\'re talking about 25 or fewer silicon atoms wide. And you generate heat with every device on an (integrated circuit), so you can\'t any longer carry away enough heat to make everything work, either.\"</p><p>That predicament looms even as the demand for digital memory, and the energy needed to accommodate it, have soared amid the widespread adoption of computers, servers and the internet. The microchip-enabled smartening of TVs, vehicles and other technology has only increased that demand.</p><p>\"We\'re getting to the point where we\'re going to approach the previous energy consumption of the United States just for memory (alone),\" Dowben said. \"And it doesn\'t stop.</p><p>\"So you need something that you can shrink smaller, if possible. But above all, you need something that works differently than a silicon transistor, so that you can drop the power consumption, a lot.\"</p><p><strong>\'Now that it works, the fun begins\'</strong></p><p>Typical silicon-based transistors consist of multiple terminals. Two of them, called the source and drain, serve as the starting and end points for electrons flowing through a circuit. Above that channel sits another terminal, the gate. Applying voltage between the gate and source can dictate whether the electric current flows with low or high resistance, leading to either a buildup or absence of electron charges that gets encoded as a 1 or 0, respectively. But random-access memory -- the form that most computer applications rely on -- requires a constant supply of power just to maintain those binary states.</p><p>So rather than depend on electric charge as the basis of its approach, the team turned to spin: a magnetism-related property of electrons that points up or down and can be read, like electric charge can, as a 1 or 0. The team knew that electrons flowing through graphene, an ultra-robust material just one atom thick, can maintain their initial spin orientations for relatively long distances -- an appealing property for demonstrating the potential of a spintronic-based transistor. Actually controlling the orientation of those spins, using substantially less power than a conventional transistor, was a much more challenging prospect.</p><p>To do it, the researchers needed to underlay the graphene with the right material. Fortunately, Binek had already dedicated years to studying and modifying just such a material, chromium oxide. Crucially, chromium oxide is magneto-electric, meaning that the spins of the atoms at its surface can be flipped from up to down, or vice versa, by applying a meager amount of temporary, energy-sipping voltage.</p><p>When applying positive voltage, the spins of the underlying chromium oxide point up, ultimately forcing the spin orientation of the graphene\'s electric current to veer left and yield a detectable signal in the process. Negative voltage instead flips the spins of the chromium oxide down, with the spin orientation of the graphene\'s current flipping to the right and generating a signal clearly distinguishable from the other.</p><p>\"Now you are starting to get really good fidelity (in the signal), because if you\'re sitting on one side of the device, and you\'ve applied a voltage, then the current is going this way. You can say that\'s \'on,\'\" Dowben said. \"But if it\'s telling the current to go the other way, that\'s clearly \'off.\'</p><p>\"This potentially gives you huge fidelity at very little energy cost. All you did was apply voltage, and it flipped.\"</p><p>As promising and functional as the team\'s demonstration was, Dowben said there exist plenty of alternatives to graphene that share its one-atom thickness but also boast properties better suited to a magneto-electric transistor. The race to overlay chromium oxide with those other 2D candidates is already on, he said, and marks \"not the something, but the start of something.\"</p><p>\"Now that it works, the fun begins, because everybody\'s going to have their own favorite 2D material, and they\'re going to try it out,\" Dowben said. \"Some of them will work a lot, lot better, and some won\'t. But now that you know it works, it\'s worth investing in those other, more sophisticated materials that could.</p><p>\"Now everybody can get into the game, figuring out how to make the transistor really good and competitive and, indeed, exceed silicon.\"</p><p>The team received support from the National Science Foundation\'s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, which funded the $20 million Emergent Quantum Materials and Technologies collaboration at Nebraska, and from the Semiconductor Research Corporation.</p>','2022-04-11 21:10:08.815676','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Nebraska-Lincoln','A new spin on one of the 20th century\'s smallest but grandest inventions, the transistor, could help feed the world\'s ever-growing appetite for digital memory while slicing up to 5% of the energy from its power-hungry diet.\n',1,61,'<li>Keke He, Bilal Barut, Shenchu Yin, Michael D. Randle, Ripudaman Dixit, Nargess Arabchigavkani, Jubin Nathawat, Ather Mahmood, Will Echtenkamp, Christian Binek, Peter A. Dowben, Jonathan P. Bird. <strong>Graphene on Chromia: A System for Beyond‐Room‐Temperature Spintronics</strong>. <em>Advanced Materials</em>, 2022; 34 (12): 2105023 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/adma.202105023\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/adma.202105023</a>\n</li>'),(2024,'Innovative technology will use smart sensors to ensure vaccine safety','innovative-technology-will-use-smart-sensors-to-ensure-vaccine-safety','2022-04-11 21:36:49.858758',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A new study from Tel Aviv University enables developers, for the first time in the world, to determine vaccine safety via smart sensors that measure objective physiological parameters. According to the researchers, most clinical trials testing the safety of new vaccines. including COVID-19 vaccines, rely on participants\' subjective reports, which can lead to biased results. In contrast, objective physiological data, obtained through sensors attached to the body, is clear and unambiguous.</p><p>The study was led by Dr. Yftach Gepner of the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at TAU\'s Sackler Faculty of Medicine, together with Dr. Dan Yamin and Dr. Erez Shmueli from TAU\'s Fleischman Faculty of Engineering. The paper was published in <em>Communications Medicine,</em> a journal from the Nature portfolio.</p><p>Dr. Gepner: \"In most methods used today, clinical trials designed to evaluate the safety of a new drug or vaccine employ self-report questionnaires, asking participants how they feel before and after receiving the treatment. This is clearly a totally subjective report. Even when Pfizer and Moderna developed their vaccines for the new COVID-19 virus, they used self-reports to prove their safety.\"</p><p>In the current study, researchers from Tel Aviv University demonstrated that smart sensors can be used to test new vaccines. The study was conducted when many Israelis received their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The researchers equipped volunteers with innovative, FDA-approved sensors developed by the Israeli company Biobeat. Attached to their chests, these sensors measured physiological reactions from one day before to three days after receiving the vaccine. The innovative sensors monitored 13 physiological parameters, such as: heart rate, breathing rate, saturation (blood oxygen levels), heartbeat volume, temperature, cardiac output, and blood pressure.</p><p>The surprising results: a significant discrepancy was found between subjective self-reports about side effects and actual measurements. That is, in nearly all objective measures, significant changes were identified after vaccination, even for subjects who reported having no reaction at all.</p><p>In addition, the study found that side effects escalate over the first 48 hours, and then parameters return to the level measured before vaccination. In other words: a direct assessment of the vaccine\'s safety identified physiological reactions during the first 48 hours, with levels restabilizing afterwards.</p><p>\"The message from our study is clear,\" says Dr. Gepner. \"In 2022 the time has come to conduct continual, sensitive, objective testing of the safety of new vaccines and therapies. There is no reason to rely on self-reports or wait for the occurrence of rare side effects like myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, which occurs in one of 10,000 patients. Preliminary signs that predict such conditions can be detected with advanced sensors, identifying normal vs. extreme alterations in physiological parameters and any risk of inflammation. Today trial participants are invited to the clinic for blood pressure testing, but often their blood pressure rises just because the situation is stressful. Continual monitoring at home solves these problems with simple, convenient, inexpensive, and accurate means. This is the kind of medicine we should strive for in 2022.\"</p>','2022-04-11 21:36:49.858758','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Tel-Aviv University','A new study enables developers to determine vaccine safety via smart sensors that measure objective physiological parameters.\n',1,74,'<li>Yftach Gepner, Merav Mofaz, Shay Oved, Matan Yechezkel, Keren Constantini, Nir Goldstein, Arik Eisenkraft, Erez Shmueli, Dan Yamin. <strong>Utilizing wearable sensors for continuous and highly-sensitive monitoring of reactions to the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine</strong>. <em>Communications Medicine</em>, 2022; 2 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s43856-022-00090-y\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s43856-022-00090-y</a>\n</li>'),(2025,'Smoking increased in those trying to quit during COVID-19, study shows','smoking-increased-in-those-trying-to-quit-during-covid-19,-study-shows','2022-04-11 21:37:04.733475',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">While smoking rates have declined dramatically in the United States, there are still 35 million smokers. There are few data about whether, and if so, how current cigarette smoking habits among those trying to quit are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.</p><p>Charles H. Hennekens, M.D., Dr.PH., senior author, first Sir Richard Doll Professor of Medicine and senior academic adviser to the dean at Florida Atlantic University\'s Schmidt College of Medicine and collaborators from Baylor College of Medicine, examined changes to smoking habits and correlates of increases and decreases during the COVID-19 pandemic among participants enrolled in a tobacco cessation and lung cancer screening program.</p><p>Between June and October 2020, they conducted a cross-sectional survey of a program participant sample. The survey consisted of three parts: changes in tobacco use; impact and coping strategies; and COVID-19 exposure and use of protective measures. Demographic variables included age, sex, race/ethnicity and marital status.</p><p>Results, published in the <em>Ochsner Journal</em><em>,</em> showed statistically significant and potentially clinically important differences between those who increased and decreased tobacco use during the pandemic. Among current smokers, 28.2 percent reported increased tobacco use, 17.3 percent reported decreased tobacco use and 54.5 percent reported no change. In addition, there were no reports of relapse among former smokers.</p><p>Researchers found correlates of increased tobacco use related to coping strategies and mental health such as high uncertainty about the future, loneliness as a result of social distancing, anger or frustration with how the pandemic has disrupted daily life, boredom because of being unable to work or engage in regular daily activities/ routines, desire to cope using alcohol or drugs, sadness or feelings of hopelessness and worry or fear about challenges to securing basic needs such as groceries or medication.</p><p>In contrast, those who smoked less were more likely to practice social distancing and other preventive strategies of proven benefit.</p><p>\"These data may aid healthcare providers to identify and provide counsel to cigarette smokers at greater risk for increasing tobacco consumption during current and future stresses such as the COVID-19 pandemic,\" said Hennekens. \"All of these efforts have the potential to reduce many premature deaths from cigarette smoking, which remain alarmingly and unnecessarily high in the U.S. and are increasing worldwide.\"</p><p>The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that tobacco-related causes account for more than 480,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, which was recently exceeded by the deaths from COVID-19.</p><p>Smoking cigarettes causes premature deaths due mainly to a two-fold risk of cardiovascular disease and a 20-fold risk of lung cancer. Quitting smoking reduces the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease beginning with a matter of months, reaching that of a lifelong non-smoker within a few years, even among older adults. In contrast, reductions in mortality risk from lung cancer only begin to appear several years after quitting, and even by 10 years, the risk is reduced to only approximately mid-way between continuing smokers and lifelong smokers. This is because the risks of cardiovascular disease relate to the numbers of cigarettes currently smoked and the risks of cancer to the duration of the habit.</p><p>Each year in the U.S., approximately 30 million hospitalizations occur in individuals 18 and older. Of these, more than 7 million are current cigarette smokers whose average hospital stay is several days.</p><p>\"Smoking cessation therapy also should include long-term counseling and at least 90 days of a prescription drug, in particular, varenicline, whose mechanisms include blocking the pleasurable sensations of nicotine on the brain,\" said Hennekens.</p><p>Collaborators are first author Maria Mejia, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor; Roger Zoorob, M.D., M.P.H., professor and chair; Xiofan Huang, M.S., biostatistician; and Robert S. Levine, M.D., professor, all within the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. Levine also is an affiliate professor at the FAU Schmidt College of Medicine.</p><p>The authors dedicated the manuscript to the memory of the late Edward D. Frohlich, M.D., Ph.D., who was the Alton Ochsner Distinguished Scientist at the Ochsner Clinic Foundation and a staff member of the Ochsner Clinic.</p><p>Hennekens was the 29th recipient of the prestigious \"Alton Ochsner Award,\" in recognition of his seminal discovery research on the hazards of cigarette smoking. Ochsner, a thoracic surgeon, and Michael DeBakey, M.D., a future world-renowned cardiovascular surgeon, were early recipients of the award for their uncontrolled case series on cigarette smoking upon lung cancer victims at autopsy in the 1930s. Sir Richard Doll, a British physician, became the foremost epidemiologist of the 20<sup>th</sup> Century for pioneering epidemiologic studies, first with Sir Austin Bradford Hill and later with Sir Richard Peto -- all who received the Alton Ochsner Award for their seminal contributions to the mortality hazards of cigarette smoking.</p><p>From 1995 to 2005,<em> Science Watch</em> ranked Hennekens as the third most widely cited medical researcher in the world and five of the top 20 were his former trainees and/or fellows. In 2012, <em>Science Heroes</em> ranked Hennekens No. 81 in the history of the world for having saved more than 1.1 million lives. In 2016, he was ranked the No. 14 \"Top Living Medical Scientist in the World.\"</p><p>Based in part on the pivotal work of Hennekens documenting the large clinical and public health hazards of smoking cigarettes, FAU President John Kelly adopted a university-wide tobacco free policy.</p>','2022-04-11 21:37:04.733475','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Florida Atlantic University','A study showed statistically significant and potentially clinically important differences between those who increased and decreased tobacco use during the pandemic. Among current smokers, 28.2 percent reported increased tobacco use, 17.3 percent reported decreased tobacco use and 54.5 percent reported no change. In addition, there were no reports of relapse among former smokers.\n',1,27,'<li>Maria C. Mejia, Roger Zoorob, Robert S. Levine, Xiaofan Huang, Charles H. Hennekens. <strong>Cross-Sectional Survey of Smoking Patterns During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Tobacco Cessation and Lung Cancer Screening Program</strong>. <em>Ochsner Journal</em>, 2022; 22 (1): 48 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.31486/toj.21.0082\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.31486/toj.21.0082</a>\n</li>'),(2026,'Heart inflammation rare among people hospitalized with COVID-19, study finds','heart-inflammation-rare-among-people-hospitalized-with-covid-19,-study-finds','2022-04-11 21:59:09.048593',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Acute myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle typically triggered by a virus, occurred in about two out of every 1,000 people hospitalized with COVID-19, and was associated with more severe illness and complications in people with COVID-19, especially among people who also had pneumonia, according to new research published today in the American Heart Association\'s flagship, peer-reviewed journal <em>Circulation</em>.</p><p>Myocarditis is a rare but serious condition that causes inflammation of the heart muscle. It can weaken the heart and its electrical system, and it can make it difficult for the heart to pump blood. An episode of myocarditis may resolve on its own or with treatment or may result in long-lasting damage.</p><p>\"While COVID-19 is a virus that predominantly leads to acute respiratory illness, there has been a small group of individuals who also experience cardiac complications,\" said Enrico Ammirati, M.D., Ph.D., co-lead author of the study and a cardiologist at De Gasperis Cardio Center and Transplant Center at Niguarda Hospital in Milan, Italy. \"A small study previously indicated acute myocarditis is a rare occurrence in people infected with COVID-19. Our analysis of international data offers better insight to the occurrence of acute myocarditis during COVID-19 hospitalization, particularly before the COVID-19 vaccines were widely available.\"</p><p>The international study examined health data for almost 57,000 people who were hospitalized with COVID-19 from February 2020 until April 2021, and who received care at 23 hospitals across the United States and Europe.</p><p>Within the large study group, a total of 54 people hospitalized with COVID-19 were identified as having definite or probable acute myocarditis, based upon results of heart muscle biopsy and/or magnetic resonance imaging. Most of the people in this study were non-Hispanic white adults (76.5%), with an average age of 38 years, and more than half were male (61%). All had confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection based upon standard laboratory testing, and none had received a COVID-19 vaccination prior to developing myocarditis.</p><p>The study analysis found:</p><p>The authors note the potential rate of COVID-19 related myocarditis may be between 1.2-5.7 per 1,000 people hospitalized for COVID-19. Some people were identified with possible myocarditis based on preliminary testing, yet they were not included in the final analysis because they did not meet all of the study\'s protocols.</p><p>\"This analysis indicates that, although rare, hospitalized patients with acute myocarditis associated with COVID-19 infection have a much greater need for intensive care unit admission, in up to 70.5% of the cases, despite the average age of the individuals in the study being much younger than expected at 38 years old,\" said co-lead study author Marco Metra, M.D., a cardiology professor at the Institute of Cardiology and in the department of medical and surgical specialties, radiological sciences and public health at the University of Brescia in Brescia, Italy.</p><p>The study has several limitations. Because the analysis was retrospective, there may have been some potential selection bias. Additionally, 43 individuals with possible acute myocarditis were excluded due to a lack of imaging or biopsy information. People older than 70 years of age were also not included because of a higher chance of age-related cardiac issues visible on magnetic resonance imaging. Some people were not screened for other viruses or immunological causes of myocarditis, so there may have been other contributing factors. Further, in some of the hospitals that were heavily hit early in the pandemic, some people with acute myocarditis may have been missed.</p><p>Co-authors are Laura Lupi, M.D.; Matteo Palazzini, M.D.; Nicholas S. Hendren, M.D.; Justin L. Grodin, M.D., M.P.H.; Carlo V. Cannistraci, Eng., Ph.D.; Matthieu Schmidt, M.D.; Guillaume Hekimian, M.D.; Giovanni Peretto, M.D.; Thomas Bochaton, M.D.; Ahmad Hayek, M.D.; Nicolas Piriou, M.D.; Sergio Leonardi, M.D.; Stefania Guida, M.D.; Annalisa Turco, M.D.; Simone Sala, M.D.; Aitor Uribarri, M.D.; Caroline M. Van de Heyning, M.D., Ph.D.; Massimo Mapelli, M.D.; Jeness Campodonico, M.D.; Patrizia Pedrotti, M.D.; Maria Isabel Barrionuevo Sánchez, M.D.; Albert Ariza Sole, M.D.; Marco Marini, M.D.; Maria Vittoria Matassini, M.D.; Mickael Vourc\'h, M.D.; Antonio Cannatà, M.D.; Daniel I. Bromage, M.D.; Daniele Briguglia, M.D.; Jorge Salamanca, M.D.; Pablo Diez-Villanueva, M.D., Ph.D.; Jukka Lehtonen, M.D.; Florent Huang, M.D.; Stéphanie Russel, M.D.; Francesco Soriano, M.D.; Fabrizio Turrini, M.D.; Manlio Cipriani, M.D.; Manuela Bramerio, M.D.; Mattia Di Pasquale, M.D.; Aurelia Grosu, M.D.; Michele Senni, M.D.; Davide Farina, M.D.; Piergiuseppe Agostoni, M.D.; Stefania Rizzo, M.D., Ph.D.; Monica De Gaspari, M.D.; Francesca Marzo, M.D.; Jason M. Duran, M.D., Ph.D.; Eric D. Adler, M.D.; Cristina Giannattasio, M.D., Ph.D.; Cristina Basso, M.D., Ph.D.; Theresa McDonagh, M.D.; Mathieu Kerneis, M.D.; Alain Combes, M.D.; Paolo G. Camici, M.D.; and James A. de Lemos, M.D. Authors\' disclosures are listed in the manuscript.</p><p>This study was funded by an Italian Ministry Grant and the Registry for Cardio-Cerebro-Vascular Pathology in Veneto Region, Italy.</p>','2022-04-11 21:59:09.048593','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American Heart Association','A new study found that 54 out of nearly 57,000 adults (a rate of 2.4 of every 1,000) hospitalized due to COVID-19 infection developed acute myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle often caused by viral infections. The study data was from the first 14 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, before the COVID-19 vaccines were broadly available.\n',1,150,'<li>Enrico Ammirati, Laura Lupi, Matteo Palazzini, Nicholas S. Hendren, Justin L. Grodin, Carlo V. Cannistraci, Matthieu Schmidt, Guillaume Hekimian, Giovanni Peretto, Thomas Bochaton, Ahmad Hayek, Nicolas Piriou, Sergio Leonardi, Stefania Guida, Annalisa Turco, Simone Sala, Aitor Uribarri, Caroline M. Van de Heyning, Massimo Mapelli, Jeness Campodonico, Patrizia Pedrotti, Maria Isabel Barrionuevo Sánchez, Albert Ariza Sole, Marco Marini, Maria Vittoria Matassini, Mickael Vourc’h, Antonio Cannatà, Daniel I. Bromage, Daniele Briguglia, Jorge Salamanca, Pablo Diez-Villanueva, Jukka Lehtonen, Florent Huang, Stéphanie Russel, Francesco Soriano, Fabrizio Turrini, Manlio Cipriani, Manuela Bramerio, Mattia Di Pasquale, Aurelia Grosu, Michele Senni, Davide Farina, Piergiuseppe Agostoni, Stefania Rizzo, Monica De Gaspari, Francesca Marzo, Jason M. Duran, Eric D. Adler, Cristina Giannattasio, Cristina Basso, Theresa McDonagh, Mathieu Kerneis, Alain Combes, Paolo G. Camici, James A. de Lemos, Marco Metra. <strong>Prevalence, Characteristics, and Outcomes of COVID-19–Associated Acute Myocarditis</strong>. <em>Circulation</em>, April 11, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1161/ClRCULATIONAHA.121.056817\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1161/ClRCULATIONAHA.121.056817</a>\n</li>'),(2027,'UMass Amherst ensemble model most accurate for predicting COVID-19 deaths','umass-amherst-ensemble-model-most-accurate-for-predicting-covid-19-deaths','2022-04-11 21:59:16.548443',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The University of Massachusetts Amherst-based U.S. COVID-19 Forecast Hub, a collaborative research consortium, has generated the most consistently accurate predictions of pandemic deaths at the state and national level, according to a paper published April 8 in the <em>Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences</em>. Every week since early April 2020, this international effort has produced a multi-model ensemble forecast of short-term COVID-19 trends in the U.S.</p><p>The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the vital role that collaboration and coordination among public health agencies, academic teams and industry partners can play in developing modern modeling capabilities to support local, state and federal responses to infectious disease outbreaks.</p><p>\"Anticipating outbreak change is critical for optimal resource allocation and response,\" says lead author Estee Cramer, a UMass Amherst Ph.D. epidemiology candidate in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences. \"These forecasting models provide specific, quantitative and evaluable predictions that inform short-term decisions, such as healthcare staffing needs, school closures and allocation of medical supplies.\"</p><p>An unprecedented global cooperative effort, the Forecast Hub represents the largest infectious disease prediction project ever conducted. The ensemble research includes just under 300 authors affiliated with 85 groups, including U.S. governmental agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); universities in the U.S., Canada, China, England, France and Germany; and scientific industry partners in the U.S. and India. The authors also include independent data analysts with no affiliation, such as Youyang Gu, who took the internet by storm with his early successful modeling efforts of the pandemic.</p><p>The Forecast Hub is directed by Nicholas Reich and Evan Ray, faculty in the UMass School of Public Health and Health Sciences. \"It has been an incredible experience to collaborate directly with so many talented and motivated groups to build this ensemble forecast,\" says Reich, a biostatistician and the senior author of the paper. \"In addition to the operational aspect of the Hub, where the forecasts have been used by CDC every week for the last two years, this paper shows how we can use these data, collected in real-time across the entire pandemic, to better understand which modeling approaches worked and which did not, and why. It\'s going to take many years to unpack all of the lessons of the last few years. In some ways, this is just the beginning.\"</p><p>In April 2020, the CDC partnered with the Reich Lab to create the COVID-19 Forecast Hub and fund it. At this time, the Hub began collecting, disseminating and synthesizing specific predictions from different academic, industry and independent research groups. The effort grew rapidly, and in its first two years the U.S. Forecast Hub collected over half a billion rows of forecast data from nearly 100 research groups. The CDC uses the Hub\'s weekly forecast in official public communications about the pandemic.</p><p>The paper compared the accuracy of short-term forecasts of U.S.-based COVID-19 deaths during the first year and a half of the pandemic. The 27 individual models that submitted forecasts consistently during that period showed high variation in accuracy across time, locations and forecast horizons. The ensemble model that combined individual forecasts was more consistently accurate than those individual forecasts.</p><p>\"This project demonstrates the importance of diversity in modeling approaches and modeling assumptions,\" Cramer says. \"Including a variety of models in the ensemble contributes to its robustness and ability to overcome individual model biases. This is a really important consideration for public health agencies when using forecasts to inform policies during an outbreak of any size.\"</p><p>The Forecast Hub ensemble was the only model that ranked in the top half of all models for more than 85% of the forecasts it made, that had better overall accuracy than the baseline forecast in every location and that had better overall four-week-ahead accuracy than the baseline forecast in every week.</p><p>All the forecasts, including those of the ensemble model, made less consistent and less accurate forecasts during the four waves of the pandemic that occurred during the study period: the summer 2020 wave in the South and Southwest, the late fall 2020 rise in deaths in the upper Midwest, the spring 2021 Alpha variant wave in Michigan and the nationwide Delta variant wave in the summer of 2021. \"Models in general systematically underpredicted the mortality curve as trends were rising and overpredicted as trends were falling,\" the paper states.</p><p>Forecasts became less accurate as models made longer term predictions. Probabilistic error at a 20-week horizon was three to five times larger than when predicting a one-week horizon. This resulted from underestimating the possibility of future increases in cases, the paper concludes. \"Because many of us interact with weather forecasts almost every day on our phones, we know not to trust the daily precipitation forecasts much past a two-week horizon,\" Reich says. \"But we don\'t have the same intuition yet as a society about infectious disease forecasts. This work shows that the accuracy of forecasts for deaths is pretty good for the next four weeks, but at horizons of six weeks or more, the accuracy is typically substantially worse.\"</p><p>The open-source infrastructure built by the U.S. COVID-19 Forecast Hub team has also been used around the world, including by hubs run by the European Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, by German academic researchers and other U.S. researchers looking at longer-term modeling of different \"what if\" scenarios.</p>','2022-04-11 21:59:16.548443','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Massachusetts Amherst','The U.S. COVID-19 Forecast Hub, a collaborative research consortium, has generated the most consistently accurate predictions of pandemic deaths at the state and national level, according to a new paper. Every week since early April 2020, this international effort has produced a multi-model ensemble forecast of short-term COVID-19 trends in the U.S.\n',1,153,'<li>Cramer et al. <strong>Evaluation of individual and ensemble probabilistic forecasts of COVID-19 mortality in the United States</strong>. <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>, 2022; 119 (15) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2113561119\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1073/pnas.2113561119</a>\n</li>'),(2028,'Study suggests why most smokers don\'t get lung cancer','study-suggests-why-most-smokers-don\'t-get-lung-cancer','2022-04-11 23:00:33.577807',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Cigarette smoking is overwhelmingly the main cause of lung cancer, yet only a minority of smokers develop the disease. A study led by scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and published online today in <em>Nature Genetics</em> suggests that some smokers may have robust mechanisms that protect them from lung cancer by limiting mutations. The findings could help identify those smokers who face an increased risk for the disease and therefore warrant especially close monitoring.</p><p>\"This may prove to be an important step toward the prevention and early detection of lung cancer risk and away from the current herculean efforts needed to battle late-stage disease, where the majority of health expenditures and misery occur,\" said Simon Spivack, M.D., M.P.H., a co-senior author of the study, professor of medicine, of epidemiology &amp; population health, and of genetics at Einstein, and a pulmonologist at Montefiore Health System.</p><p><strong>Overcoming Obstacles to Study Cell Mutations</strong></p><p>It\'s long been assumed that smoking leads to lung cancer by triggering DNA mutations in normal lung cells. \"But that could never be proven until our study, since there was no way to accurately quantify mutations in normal cells,\" said Jan Vijg, Ph.D., a study co-senior author and professor and chair of genetics, professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences, and the Lola and Saul Kramer Chair in Molecular Genetics at Einstein (also at the Center for Single-Cell Omics, Jiaotong University School of Medicine in Shanghai, China). Dr. Vijg overcame that obstacle a few years ago by developing an improved method for sequencing the entire genomes of individual cells.</p><p>Single-cell whole-genome sequencing methods can introduce sequencing errors that are hard to distinguish from true mutations -- a serious flaw when analyzing cells containing rare and random mutations. Dr. Vijg solved this problem by developing a new sequencing technique called single-cell multiple displacement amplification (SCMDA). As reported in <em>Nature Methods</em> in 2017, this method accounts for and reduces sequencing errors.</p><p>The Einstein researchers used SCMDA to compare the mutational landscape of normal lung epithelial cells (i.e., cells lining the lung) from two types of people: 14 never-smokers, ages 11 to 86; and 19 smokers, ages 44 to 81, who had smoked a maximum of 116 pack years. (One pack year of smoking equals 1 pack of cigarettes smoked per day for one year.) The cells were collected from patients who were undergoing bronchoscopy for diagnostic tests unrelated to cancer. \"These lung cells survive for years, even decades, and thus can accumulate mutations with both age and smoking,\" said Dr. Spivack. \"Of all the lung\'s cell types, these are among the most likely to become cancerous.\"</p><p><strong>Mutations Caused by Smoking</strong></p><p>The researchers found that mutations (single-nucleotide variants and small insertions and deletions) accumulated in the lung cells of non-smokers as they age -- and that significantly more mutations were found in the lung cells of the smokers. \"This experimentally confirms that smoking increases lung cancer risk by increasing the frequency of mutations, as previously hypothesized,\" said Dr. Spivack. \"This is likely one reason why so few non-smokers get lung cancer, while 10% to 20% of lifelong smokers do.\"</p><p>Another finding from the study: The number of cell mutations detected in lung cells increased in a straight line with the number of pack years of smoking -- and, presumably, the risk for lung cancer increased as well. But interestingly, the rise in cell mutations halted after 23 pack years of exposure.</p><p>\"The heaviest smokers did not have the highest mutation burden,\" said Dr. Spivack. \"Our data suggest that these individuals may have survived for so long in spite of their heavy smoking because they managed to suppress further mutation accumulation. This leveling off of mutations could stem from these people having very proficient systems for repairing DNA damage or detoxifying cigarette smoke.\"</p><p>The finding has led to a new research direction. \"We now wish to develop new assays that can measure someone\'s capacity for DNA repair or detoxification, which could offer a new way to assess one\'s risk for lung cancer,\" said Dr. Vijg.</p><p>The study is titled, \"Single-cell analysis of somatic mutations in human bronchial epithelial cells in relation to aging and smoking.\" Additional Einstein authors include: Zhenqiu Huang, Ph.D., Shixiang Sun, Ph.D., Moonsook Lee, M.S., Yakov Peter, Ph.D., Ali Sadoughi, M.D., Chirag Shah, M.D., and Kenny Ye, Ph.D., Miao Shi, Ph.D., Spencer Waldman, B.S., Ava Marsh, B.A., Taha Siddiqui, M.B.B.S., Alexander Y. Maslov, M.D., Ph.D. (also at Voronezh State University of Engineering Technology, Voronezh, Russia), and Xiao Dong, Ph.D. (also at University of Minnesota, Minneapolis MN).</p><p>This study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (U01 ES029519-01, U01HL145560, AG017242, and AG056278).</p>','2022-04-11 23:00:33.577807','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Albert Einstein College of Medicine','Cigarette smoking is overwhelmingly the main cause of lung cancer, yet only a minority of smokers develop the disease. A study suggests that some smokers may have robust mechanisms that protect them from lung cancer by limiting mutations. The findings could help identify those smokers who face an increased risk for the disease and therefore warrant especially close monitoring.\n',1,41,'<li>Zhenqiu Huang, Shixiang Sun, Moonsook Lee, Alexander Y. Maslov, Miao Shi, Spencer Waldman, Ava Marsh, Taha Siddiqui, Xiao Dong, Yakov Peter, Ali Sadoughi, Chirag Shah, Kenny Ye, Simon D. Spivack, Jan Vijg. <strong>Single-cell analysis of somatic mutations in human bronchial epithelial cells in relation to aging and smoking</strong>. <em>Nature Genetics</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41588-022-01035-w\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41588-022-01035-w</a>\n</li>'),(2029,'Lead as a social determinant of child and adolescent physiological stress and behavior','lead-as-a-social-determinant-of-child-and-adolescent-physiological-stress-and-behavior','2022-04-11 23:40:25.520200',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Lead is an environmental neurotoxicant that causes neurocognitive deficits and cardiovascular and metabolic disorders. It also disproportionately affects socially disadvantaged communities. The association between lead exposure and children\'s IQ has been well studied, but few studies have examined the effects of blood lead on children\'s physiological stress and behavior. Three University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing) studies shed light on how lead can affect children and adolescents\' physiological stress and emotional/behavioral development.</p><p><strong>Lead Exposure and the Psychological Stress Response</strong></p><p>Exposure to lead during childhood and adolescence is associated with a host of detrimental outcomes that persist into adulthood. Until now, however, few studies have tested the association between lead exposure and the physiological stress response, which in and of itself may act as a precursor to and/or underlying mechanism of detrimental health outcomes.</p><p>A study from Penn Nursing adds new evidence suggesting that early childhood lead exposure is significantly associated with dysregulated heart rate variability during an induced stress task in early adolescence, indicative of a dysregulated stress response. These findings hold implications for cardiovascular health and overall growth and development.</p><p>\"The biological mechanisms underpinning the relationship between lead and physiological stress functionality are relatively unknown,\" said first-author Olivia M. Halabicky, PhD, RN, who completed this work as a doctoral student at Penn Nursing. Dysregulated stress responses are associated with a host of health consequences including cardiovascular and metabolic diseases as well as impaired neurodevelopment and neurocognitive outcomes of general and higher-order cognition. \"Understanding these relationships could help to develop interventions to target this biological mechanism and thereby reduce the harmful effects of lead exposure for children at greatest risk,\" said senior-author and principal investigator Jianghong Liu, PhD, RN, FAAN, the Marjorie O. Rendell Endowed Professor in Healthy Transitions and the Faculty Director of Global Health Minor. Liu is also Director of the NIH-funded China Jintan Child Health Project, which follows more than 1,000 children in Jintan, China from pre-school into adolescence to understand the influence of exposure to environmental lead, nutrition, and psychosocial factors on their behavior.</p><p>The article \"Early Childhood Lead Exposure and Adolescent Heart Rate Variability: A Longitudinal Cohort Study\" was published in the journal <em>Environmental Research </em>and is available online. Co-authors also include Penn Nursing\'s Jennifer A. Pinto-Martin, PhD, MPH, and Peggy Compton, PHD, RN, FAAN. A similar study from Liu, published in the <em>International Journal of Hygiene and Health</em> in 2020, investigated the gaps in understanding about the effects of lead on resting heart rate.</p><p><strong>Lead Exposure Explains Adversity-Antisocial Relationship </strong></p><p>In another novel investigation, Liu and collaborative researchers recently documented that blood lead in adolescents from Philadelphia aged 11 and 12 was positively correlated with both more social adversity and more externalizing behavior, and importantly that blood lead levels mediated the social adversity-externalizing behavior relationship.</p><p>\"These findings have potentially important implications for public health and environmental regulation as well as understanding biological mechanisms that link social inequality with health outcomes, especially in youth from low-income, urban areas,\" says Liu.</p><p>These findings also highlight the importance of both social and environmental determinants of adolescent health. They underline the need to mitigate adverse social influences and monitor lead exposure in children\'s environments to reduce likelihood of developing problems with externalizing behaviors, a risk factor for criminality and lower social mobility later in life. The article \"Blood Lead Levels Mediate the Relationship Between Social Adversity and Child Externalizing Behavior\" was published in the journal <em>Environmental Research</em> and is available online. Coauthors include Jill Portnoy and Presley McGarry, both of the University of Massachusetts; Adrian Raine, Margaret Gladieux and Aimin Chen of the University of Pennsylvania.</p>','2022-04-11 23:40:25.520200','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing','Lead is an environmental neurotoxicant that causes neurocognitive deficits and cardiovascular and metabolic disorders. It also disproportionately affects socially disadvantaged communities. The association between lead exposure and children\'s IQ has been well studied, but few studies have examined the effects of blood lead on children\'s physiological stress and behavior. Three new studies shed light on how lead can affect children and adolescents\' physiological stress and emotional/behavioral development.\n',1,105,'<li>Jianghong Liu, Jill Portnoy, Adrian Raine, Margaret Gladieux, Presley McGarry, Aimin Chen. <strong>Blood lead levels mediate the relationship between social adversity and child externalizing behavior</strong>. <em>Environmental Research</em>, 2022; 204: 112396 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2021.112396\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.envres.2021.112396</a>\n</li>'),(2030,'Critical benefits of snowpack for winter wheat are diminishing','critical-benefits-of-snowpack-for-winter-wheat-are-diminishing','2022-04-12 02:17:46.474797',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">University of Minnesota scientists are partnering with a global team to study the complex effects of climate change on winter crops.</p><p>Warming winters may sound like a welcome change for some farmers because the change in temperature could reduce freezing stress on plants and create more ideal conditions for growing overwinter cash crops and winter cover crops. However, when looking at climate change from a cross-seasonal perspective and accounting for declining snowpack, researchers are finding that the whole picture isn\'t so sunny.</p><p>Reduced snow may result in more exposure of winter crops to freeze and could mean greater risks for agricultural drought.</p><p>In a new study published in Nature Climate Change, Zhenong Jin, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering at the University of Minnesota, led an international team in researching the implications that could be associated with warmer winters and declining snowpack, using winter wheat (the largest winter crop in the U.S.) as an example.</p><p>\"Although the implications of changes in snow for agricultural irrigation are beginning to be understood, the consequences of such for predominantly rainfed winter crops such as winter wheat remain largely unknown. There might be risks for being overoptimistic about growing overwinter crops under climate change,\" said Jin.</p><p>Researchers used panel regression, a powerful statistical method to analyze repeated observations over time, to attribute the interannual variability of winter wheat yield to multiple interactive environmental factors. These factors included cold season freezing degree days, growing degree days, rainfall and snowfall during the growing season and snow cover fraction during frozen days.</p><p>The researchers found:</p><p>\"Our study highlighted the potential freezing risk in winters with decreased snow cover, especially when seedlings were exposed to comparatively warmer conditions that caused loss of winter-hardiness, which can cause significant yield losses of winter crops,\" said Peng Zhu, Ph.D., a Researcher from the Climate and Environment Sciences Laboratory of the Pierre Simon Laplace Institute, who co-led this study.</p><p>This research will help inform breeders as they consider the complex tradeoffs among warming, reduced snowpack and occasional freezing threats when developing climate-smart cultivars.</p><p>These results also highlight the necessity of improving the representation of snow associated processes in crop models to better evaluate climate change effects and adaptation potential in cropping systems.</p><p>\"It is worth noting that in some cropping systems freezing stress is appreciated, since it helps farmers control pests and diseases and snow is even removed or at least made more compact by farmers to increase the freezing of the soil,\" said Jin. \"When data becomes available, future studies might also need to account for the influence of snow on pests and diseases to comprehensively understand what future changes in snowpack mean for the cropping system.\"</p><p>Funding for this research was partially supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and the French National Research Agency.</p><p>Other members of the University of Minnesota research team include Taegon Kim and Chenxi Lin from Jin\'s group and David Mulla from the Department of Soil, Water, and Climate.</p>','2022-04-12 02:17:46.474797','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Minnesota','Scientists are studying the complex effects of climate change on winter crops. Warming winters may sound like a welcome change for some farmers because the change in temperature could reduce freezing stress on plants and create more ideal conditions for growing overwinter cash crops and winter cover crops. However, when looking at climate change from a cross-seasonal perspective and accounting for declining snowpack, researchers are finding that the whole picture isn’t so sunny.\n',1,70,'<li>Peng Zhu, Taegon Kim, Zhenong Jin, Chenxi Lin, Xuhui Wang, Philippe Ciais, Nathaniel D. Mueller, Amir Aghakouchak, Jianxi Huang, David Mulla, David Makowski. <strong>The critical benefits of snowpack insulation and snowmelt for winter wheat productivity</strong>. <em>Nature Climate Change</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01327-3\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41558-022-01327-3</a>\n</li>'),(2031,'How to rejuvenate the immune system of elderly people and reduce their risk of infectious disease','how-to-rejuvenate-the-immune-system-of-elderly-people-and-reduce-their-risk-of-infectious-disease','2022-04-12 02:18:19.051220',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A new study, led by researchers from the University of California, Irvine, identifies a reason for why older adults are significantly more susceptible to infectious diseases than younger people, a critical societal issue most recently exemplified by the COVID-19 pandemic.</p><p>Study results also pave the way for new potential therapeutic targets to rejuvenate the immune system in older adults and thereby reduce their risk of infectious disease.</p><p>\"Through this study, we have gained a new understanding of why older adults are more susceptible to infectious diseases, which will enable us to identify potential new treatments,\" said senior author Michael Demetriou, MD, PhD, a professor of neurology at the UCI School of Medicine and chief of the Division of Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroimmunology at UCI. First author and assistant professor in the UCI Department of Pathology, Haik Mkhikian, MD, PhD, added, \"We\'ve identified a potential fountain of youth for the immune system.\"</p><p>The study, titled, \"Age-associated impairment of T cell immunity is linked to sex-dimorphic elevation of N-glycan branching,\" was published in <em>Nature Aging</em>.</p><p>T cell immunity declines with aging, thereby increasing severity and mortality from infectious disease. T cells are the quarterback of the immune system and coordinate immune responses to fight off infections. The addition of complex and branched carbohydrate chains (\'glycans\') to proteins suppresses T cells function.</p><p>In this study, researchers show that the branched glycans increase with age in T cells from females more than in males due to age-associated increases in an important sugar metabolite (N-acetylglucosamine) and signaling by the T cell cytokine interleukin-7.</p><p>\"Our research reveals that reversing the elevation in branched glycans rejuvenates human and mouse T cell function and reduces severity of <em>Salmonella</em> infection in old female mice,\" said Demetriou.</p><p>Mkhikian added, \"This suggests several potential novel therapeutic targets to revitalize old T cells, such as altering branched glycans or the age-triggered elevation in serum N-acetylglucosamine and IL-7 signaling.\"</p><p>Aging-associated immune dysfunction, referred to as immunosenescence, contributes to increased morbidity and mortality from both infectious and neoplastic diseases in adults aged 65 years and older. In the U.S, for example, around 89 percent of annual deaths from influenza are in people at least 65?years old, despite this age group representing only around 15 percent of the nation\'s population. More recently, the vulnerability of older adults to viral infections has been tragically highlighted by the recent emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Increased morbidity and mortality in older adults also occurs with common bacterial infections such as those caused by the enteric pathogen <em>Salmonella</em>. Furthermore, efficacy of immunizations declines with age, further increasing risk of infection in older adults. The rapidly aging population in the developed world exacerbates this issue and heightens the need for interventions that effectively target immunosenescence.</p><p>Previous studies examined transcriptome changes in highly purified aged T cell subsets. In this study, researchers analyzed T cell populations by age and sex, with results suggesting sex-specific differences that imply that effective interventions to reverse immune dysfunction in older adults may require sex-specific strategies.</p><p>The study was supported by funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative health, The Burroughs Wellcome Fund and a predoctoral fellowship from the American heart Association.</p>','2022-04-12 02:18:19.051220','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - Irvine','A new study identifies a reason for why older adults are significantly more susceptible to infectious diseases than younger people, a critical societal issue most recently exemplified by the COVID-19 pandemic.\n',1,91,'<li>Haik Mkhikian, Ken L. Hayama, Khachik Khachikyan, Carey Li, Raymond W. Zhou, Judy Pawling, Suzi Klaus, Phuong Q. N. Tran, Kim M. Ly, Andrew D. Gong, Hayk Saryan, Jasper L. Hai, David Grigoryan, Philip L. Lee, Barbara L. Newton, Manuela Raffatellu, James W. Dennis, Michael Demetriou. <strong>Age-associated impairment of T cell immunity is linked to sex-dimorphic elevation of N-glycan branching</strong>. <em>Nature Aging</em>, 2022; 2 (3): 231 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00187-y\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s43587-022-00187-y</a>\n</li>');
INSERT INTO `news_news` VALUES (2032,'Decoy particles trick coronavirus as it evolves','decoy-particles-trick-coronavirus-as-it-evolves','2022-04-12 08:29:05.986116','<p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">They might look like cells and act like cells. But a new potential COVID-19 treatment is actually a cleverly disguised trickster, which attracts viruses and binds them, rendering them inactive.</p><p>As the ever-evolving SARS-CoV-2 virus begins to evade once promising treatments, such as monoclonal antibody therapies, researchers have become more interested in these \"decoy\" nanoparticles. Mimicking regular cells, decoy nanoparticles soak up viruses like a sponge, inhibiting them from infecting the rest of the body.</p><p>In a new study, Northwestern University synthetic biologists set out to elucidate the design rules needed make decoy nanoparticles effective and resistant to viral escape. After designing and testing various iterations, the researchers identified a broad set of decoys -- all manufacturable using different methods -- that were incredibly effective against the original virus as well as mutant variants.</p><p>In fact, decoy nanoparticles were up to 50 times more effective at inhibiting naturally occurring viral mutants, compared to traditional, protein-based inhibitor drugs. When tested against a viral mutant designed to resist such treatments, decoy nanoparticles were up to 1,500 times more effective at inhibiting infection.</p><p>Although much more research and clinical evaluations are needed, the researchers believe decoy nanoparticle infusions someday could potentially be used to treat patients with severe or prolonged viral infections.</p><p>The study was published late last week (April 7) in the journal <em>Small</em>. In the paper, the team tested decoy nanoparticles against the parent SARS-CoV-2 virus and five variants (including beta, delta, delta-plus and lambda) in a cellular culture.</p><p>\"We showed that decoy nanoparticles are effective inhibitors of all these different viral variants,\" said Northwestern\'s Joshua Leonard, co-senior author of the study. \"Even variants that escape other drugs did not escape our decoy nanoparticles.\"</p><p>\"As we were conducting the study, different variants kept popping up around the world,\" added Northwestern\'s Neha Kamat, co-senior author of the study. \"We kept testing our decoys against the new variants, and they just kept working. It\'s very effective.\"</p><p>Leonard is an associate professor of chemical and biological engineering in Northwestern\'s McCormick School of Engineering. Kamat is an assistant professor of biomedical engineering in McCormick. Both are key members of Northwestern\'s Center for Synthetic Biology.</p><p><strong>\'Evolutionary rock and a hard place\'</strong></p><p>As the SARS-CoV-2 virus has mutated to create new variants, some treatments have become less effective in fighting the ever-evolving virus. Just last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) paused several monoclonal antibody treatments, for example, due to their failure against the BA.2 omicron subvariant.</p><p>But even where treatments fail, the decoy nanoparticles in the new study never lost effectiveness. Leonard said this is because the decoys put SARS-CoV-2 \"between an evolutionary rock and a hard place.\"</p><p>SARS-CoV-2 infects human cells by binding its infamous spike protein to the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor. A protein on the surface of cells, ACE2 provides an entry point for the virus.</p><p>To design decoy nanoparticles, the Northwestern team used nanosized particles (extracellular vesicles) naturally released from all cell types. They engineered cells producing these particles to overexpress the gene for ACE2, leading to many ACE2 receptors on the particles\' surfaces. When the virus came into contact with the decoy, it bonded tightly to these receptors rather than to real cells, rendering the virus unable to infect cells.</p><p>\"For the virus to get into a cell, it has to bind to the ACE2 receptor,\" Leonard said. \"Decoy nanoparticles present an evolutionary challenge for SARS-CoV-2. The virus would have to come up with an entirely different way to enter cells in order to avoid the need to use ACE2 receptors. There is no obvious evolutionary escape route.\"</p><p><strong>Future benefits</strong></p><p>In addition to being effective against drug-resistant viruses, decoy nanoparticles come with several other benefits. Because they are biological (rather than synthetic) materials, the nanoparticles are less likely to elicit an immune response, which causes inflammation and can interfere with the drug\'s efficacy. They also exhibit low toxicity, making them particularly well-suited for use in sustained or repeated administration for treating severely ill patients.</p><p>When the COVID-19 pandemic began, researchers and clinicians experienced an unnerving gap between discovering the virus and developing new drugs to treat it. For the next pandemic, decoy nanoparticles could provide a quick, effective treatment before vaccines are developed.</p><p>\"The decoy strategy is one of the most immediate things you can try,\" Leonard said. \"As soon as you know the receptor that the virus uses, you can start building decoy particles with those receptors. We could potentially fast-track an approach like this to reduce severe illness and death in the crucial early stages of future viral pandemics.\"</p><p>The study, \"Elucidating design principles for engineering cell-derived vesicles to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection,\" was supported by the National Science Foundation (grant numbers 1844219 and 1844336) and a gift from Kairos Ventures.</p>','2022-04-12 02:18:30.472990','uploads/news/Low-Res_kamat-leonard-decoy.jpg.png',1,'Northwestern University','Decoy nanoparticles mimic cells, attracting viruses to bind to them rather than infecting healthy cells. Researchers tested the strategy against the novel coronavirus and five of its variants, finding it was consistently effective.',1,21,'<li>Taylor F. Gunnels, Devin M. Stranford, Roxana E. Mitrut, Neha P. Kamat, Joshua N. Leonard. <strong>Elucidating Design Principles for Engineering Cell‐Derived Vesicles to Inhibit SARS‐CoV‐2 Infection</strong>. <em>Small</em>, 2022; 2200125 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smll.202200125\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/smll.202200125</a>\r\n</li>'),(2033,'Research in human kidney organoids reveals target to prevent irreversible kidney damage','research-in-human-kidney-organoids-reveals-target-to-prevent-irreversible-kidney-damage','2022-04-12 15:10:04.180274',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A compound called SCR7 supports DNA repair to prevent irreparable tissue damage and chronic kidney disease progression. To a certain extent, kidneys have the capacity to repair themselves after being injured, but a switch can occur from such intrinsic repair to incomplete repair that leads to irreversible damage and chronic kidney disease (CKD). A team led by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) recently used kidney organoids derived from human stem cells to identify genes that are important for maintaining healthy repair in the kidneys. The findings, which are published in <em>Science Translational Medicine</em>, may lead to new targets to help prevent or treat CKD.</p><p>Although various factors involved in kidney repair have been identified in animal studies, translating these findings into the clinical been difficult because many treatments deemed safe and effective in animals have subsequently been found to be toxic or ineffective in clinical trials. Human kidney organoids, which are like miniature kidneys, may help investigators avoid these setbacks.</p><p>\"We have pioneered the work of human kidney organoids and think they\'ll be useful for therapeutic development for CKD,\" says lead author Navin Gupta, MD, an investigator in the Division of Nephrology at MGH. \"As physician-scientists, we wanted to create a new CKD model in human cells to facilitate drug development.\"</p><p>When Gupta and his colleagues exposed human kidney organoids to the chemotherapy drug cisplatin, which can damage the kidneys, the treatment altered the express of 159 genes and 29 signal pathways within kidney cells undergoing intrinsic repair. Many of the genes they identified, including 2 called <em>FANCD2</em> and <em>Rad51</em>, were activated during intrinsic repair, but their expression dropped as kidney damage became irreversible. These genes code for proteins that play a role in the repair of DNA when it becomes damaged within cells. Additional experiments in mouse models of kidney injury and in human kidney biopsies confirmed the findings discovered in the kidney organoids.</p><p>Finally, through drug screening tests, the scientists identified a compound known as SCR7 that helped to maintain <em>FANCD2</em> and <em>RAD51</em> activity to rescue normal tissue repair and prevent the progression of CKD in the researchers\' cisplatin-induced organoid injury model.</p><p>\"We have shown that the activation of a DNA repair mechanism can help to maintain healthy kidney status,\" says senior author Ryuji Morizane, MD, PhD, a principal investigator in the Division of Nephrology at MGH. \"In the future, this approach might become a new therapeutic option for patients with CKD.\"</p><p>Additional study authors include Takuya Matsumoto, Ken Hiratsuka, Edgar Garcia Saiz, Pierre Galichon, Tomoya Miyoshi, Koichiro Susa, Narihito Tatsumoto, and Michifumi Yamashita.</p><p>This work was supported by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) T32 fellowship training grant, a Harvard Stem Cell Institute interdisciplinary grant, two Brigham and Women\'s Hospital Research Excellence Awards, a Cell Science Research Foundation Award, an NCATS UCLA CTSI KL2 grant, a Cedars-Sinai CTSI Clinical Scholar Grant, a Brigham and Women\'s Hospital Faculty Career Development Award , a Harvard Stem Cell Institute Seed Grant, a DiaComp Pilot &amp; Feasibility Program, an NIH DP2EB029388 award, and an NIH U01EB028899 grant.</p>','2022-04-12 15:10:04.180274','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Massachusetts General Hospital','A compound called SCR7 supports DNA repair to prevent irreparable tissue damage and chronic kidney disease progression.\n',1,27,'<li>Navin Gupta, Takuya Matsumoto, Ken Hiratsuka, Edgar Garcia Saiz, Pierre Galichon, Tomoya Miyoshi, Koichiro Susa, Narihito Tatsumoto, Michifumi Yamashita, Ryuji Morizane. <strong>Modeling injury and repair in kidney organoids reveals that homologous recombination governs tubular intrinsic repair</strong>. <em>Science Translational Medicine</em>, 2022; 14 (634) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.abj4772\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/scitranslmed.abj4772</a>\n</li>'),(2034,'Measuring endocrine disruptors in wastewater','measuring-endocrine-disruptors-in-wastewater','2022-04-12 17:28:11.215211',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Treating pollutants, such as endocrine disruptors, is an effective way to protect the environment. Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that alter the hormonal systems and the development of organisms that are exposed to them, even in small quantities. Doctoral student Julie Robitaille and Professor Valérie Langlois of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) are working on an effluent analysis tool to predict their harmful effects.</p><p>\"There is interest in Quebec and around the world in finding ways to track endocrine disruptors. These methods could even identify where the contamination is coming from in a given area -- whether it\'s from agricultural, hospital, municipal, or industrial environments,\" says Professor Valérie Langlois.</p><p>The pair of researchers is also working with municipal and industrial partners to monitor drinking water and wastewater to plan for potential infrastructure changes. Unlike many current techniques that test on fish, their method does not involve animal testing. Instead, their approach uses human cell lines, genetically modified in the laboratory to be sensitive to certain hormones.</p><p>\"When an endocrine disruptor activates the receptors on these cells, they emit a small light. That\'s how we determine whether the wastewater could be posing a risk to the hormonal system,\" explains Julie Robitaille, a doctoral student in water sciences. However, she says that further research is needed to reveal how their cellular findings translate to aquatic species.</p><p><strong>The contaminant cocktail</strong></p><p>The challenge in monitoring wastewater comes from the \"cocktail\" of endocrine disruptors it contains. \"You can\'t just look at whether each individual substance is present. You need to analyze whether the entire mixture has any effect, since these contaminants can have different consequences when combined with other chemicals,\" says the PhD student.</p><p>To test the effects of the pollutant mix, the researchers turned to bioassays, using the biological analyses to measure the reactions of their cell lines when exposed to wastewater samples, without knowing exactly which contaminants they contained.</p><p>Robitaille used several techniques to demonstrate the effectiveness of this type of approach, one of which involved making an inventory of all the tools available to regulatory authorities. She conducted this literature review in collaboration with scientists who are members of the Intersectoral Centre for Endocrine Disruptor Analysis (ICEDA). The publication appeared in the Environmental Research journal\'s 2022 Special Issue on Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals.</p>','2022-04-12 17:28:11.215211','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Institut national de la recherche scientifique - INRS','Treating pollutants, such as endocrine disruptors, is an effective way to protect the environment. Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that alter the hormonal systems and the development of organisms that are exposed to them, even in small quantities. Scientists are working on an effluent analysis tool to predict their harmful effects.\n',1,27,'<li>T.S. Barton-Maclaren, M. Wade, N. Basu, S. Bayen, J. Grundy, V. Marlatt, R. Moore, L. Parent, J. Parrott, P. Grigorova, J. Pinsonnault-Cooper, V.S. Langlois. <strong>Innovation in regulatory approaches for endocrine disrupting chemicals: The journey to risk assessment modernization in Canada</strong>. <em>Environmental Research</em>, 2022; 204: 112225 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2021.112225\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.envres.2021.112225</a>\n</li>'),(2035,'Omicron: Number of vaccine breakthroughs in cancer patients on the rise, study finds','omicron:-number-of-vaccine-breakthroughs-in-cancer-patients-on-the-rise,-study-finds','2022-04-12 17:28:47.888745',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">For cancer patients, Covid-19 poses a particular risk due to their often compromised immune systems, weakened by therapy or disease, which is why vaccination is very important for their protection. Now, a recent study led by MedUni Vienna shows that, due to Omicron, there is an increasing number of breakthrough infections in people with cancer, especially while they are undergoing cancer therapy. The researchers of the study, which has just been published in the journal <em>Cancer Cell</em>, emphasise that adhering to protective measures and development of vaccines adapted to virus variants is important to affected individuals.</p><p>A total of 3,959 patients who are or have been treated for cancer at University Hospital Vienna and at the Franz Tappeiner Hospital in Merano (Italy) were examined in the study. Eighty-five (85) percent of patients had received at least one vaccination with one of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines authorised in the EU. Between February 2020 and February 2022, a total of 950 of the 3,959 cancer patients (24 percent) had become infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. As the research shows, the number of breakthrough infections increased significantly with the emergence of the Omicron variant in January 2022: 70 percent of infected patients were vaccinated. Thus, the risk of vaccine breakthrough for cancer patients due to Omicron tripled compared with the Delta variant that prevailed between October and December. Breakthrough infections were significantly more common among those who were undergoing systemic treatment than among those without ongoing cancer therapy.</p><p>To obtain reasons for the higher rate of breakthrough infections with Omicron compared to Delta, the researchers examined, among other things, the concentration of protective antibodies in the blood in samples from 78 cancer patients and 25 healthy individuals. Strikingly, both in people with solid tumors and blood cancers, there was greatly reduced inhibition of the Omicron variant by specific vaccine antibodies as compared to people without cancer. However, there was also a trend toward shorter hospital stays for vaccinated versus unvaccinated patients. In addition, breakthrough infections only required intensive medical care in rare cases.</p><p><strong>Protective measures still important for cancer patients</strong></p><p>Matthias Preusser, Head of the Division of Oncology at the Department of Medicine I at MedUni Vienna and University Hospital Vienna, says, \"The increasing rates of breakthrough infections and hospitalisations of vaccinated cancer patients associated with Omicron underscore the need for further protective measures not only to effectively combat the ongoing pandemic, but also to prepare for the potential emergence of additional Sars-CoV-2 variants. Vaccines adapted to the particular Sars-CoV-2 variant could help to better protect cancer patients and maintain life-sustaining cancer treatment during the pandemic.\"</p><p>As study director, Preusser conducted the study in cooperation with the Haemato-Oncological Day Clinic at the Franz Tappeiner Hospital in Merano (Italy), the Center for Pathophysiology, Infectiology and Immunology at MedUni Vienna, the Clinical Institute of Laboratory Medicine, the Department of Infections and Tropical Medicine (Department of Medicine I) at MedUni Vienna, the Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Interfaces and Intelligent Data Analytics Lab Salzburg at the University of Salzburg, and the Faculty of Economics at the University of Klagenfurt.</p>','2022-04-12 17:28:47.888745','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Medical University of Vienna','For cancer patients, COVID-19 poses a particular risk due to their often compromised immune systems. Now, a study shows that, due to Omicron, there is an increasing number of breakthrough infections in people with cancer, especially while they are undergoing cancer therapy.\n',1,35,'<li>Maximilian J. Mair, Manfred Mitterer, Pia Gattinger, Julia M. Berger, Wolfgang Trutschnig, Arne C. Bathke, Margaretha Gansterer, Anna S. Berghoff, Severin Laengle, Lynn Gottmann, Thomas Buratti, Helmuth Haslacher, Wolfgang W. Lamm, Markus Raderer, Selma Tobudic, Thorsten Fuereder, Rudolf Valenta, Dominic Fong, Matthias Preusser. <strong>Enhanced SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infections in patients with hematologic and solid cancers due to Omicron</strong>. <em>Cancer Cell</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ccell.2022.04.003\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.ccell.2022.04.003</a>\n</li>'),(2036,'New 3D printing technique: A game changer for medical testing devices','new-3d-printing-technique:-a-game-changer-for-medical-testing-devices','2022-04-12 17:29:05.310174',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Microfluidic devices are compact testing tools made up of tiny channels carved on a chip, which allow biomedical researchers to test the properties of liquids, particles and cells at a microscale. They are crucial to drug development, diagnostic testing and medical research in areas such as cancer, diabetes and now COVID-19. However, the production of these devices is very labor intensive, with minute channels and wells that often need to be manually etched or molded into a transparent resin chip for testing. While 3D printing has offered many advantages for biomedical device manufacturing, its techniques were previously not sensitive enough to build layers with the minute detail required for microfluidic devices. Until now.</p><p>Researchers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering have now developed a highly specialized 3D printing technique that allows microfluidic channels to be fabricated on chips at a precise microscale not previously achieved. The research, led by Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering Ph.D. graduate Yang Xu and Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and Industrial and Systems Engineering Yong Chen, in collaboration with Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Noah Malmstadt and Professor Huachao Mao at Purdue University, was published in <em>Nature Communications</em>.</p><p>The research team used a type of 3D printing technology known as vat photopolymerization, which harnesses light to control the conversion of liquid resin material into its solid end state.</p><p>\"After light projection, we can basically decide where to build the parts (of the chip), and because we use light, the resolution can be rather high within a layer. However, the resolution is much worse between layers, which is a critical challenge in the building of microscale channels,\" Chen said.</p><p>\"This is the first time we\'ve been able to print something where the channel height is at the 10 micron level; and we can control it really accurately, to an error of plus or minus one micron. This is something that has never been done before, so this is a breakthrough in the 3D printing of small channels,\" he said.</p><p>Vat photopolymerization makes use of a vat filled with liquid photopolymer resin, out of which a printed item is constructed layer by layer. Ultraviolet light is then flashed onto the object, curing and hardening the resin at each layer level. As this happens, a build platform moves the printed item up or down so additional layers can be built onto it.</p><p>But when it comes to microfluidic devices, vat photopolymerization has some disadvantages in the creation of the tiny wells and channels that are required on the chip. The UV light source often penetrates deeply in the residual liquid resin, curing and solidifying material within the walls of the device\'s channels, which would clog the finished device.</p><p>\"When you project the light, ideally, you only want to cure one layer of the channel wall and leave the liquid resin inside the channel untouched; but it\'s hard to control the curing depth, as we are trying to target something that is only a 10 micron gap,\" Chen said.</p><p>He said that current commercial processes only allowed for the creation of a channel height at the 100 microns level with poor accuracy control, due to the fact that the light penetrates a cured layer too deeply, unless you are using an opaque resin that doesn\'t allow as much light penetration.</p><p>\"But with a microfluidic channel, typically you want to observe something under microscope, and if it\'s opaque, you cannot see the material inside, so we need to use a transparent resin,\" Chen said.</p><p>In order to accurately create channels in clear resin at a microscale level suitable for microfluidic devices, the team developed a unique auxiliary platform that moves between the light source and the printed device, blocking the light from solidifying the liquid within the walls of a channel, so that the channel roof can then be added separately to the top of the device. The residual resin that remains in the channel would still be in a liquid state and can then be flushed out after the printing process to form the channel space.</p><p>Microfluidic devices have increasingly important applications in medical research, drug development and diagnostics.</p><p>\"There are so many applications for microfluidic channels. You can flow a blood sample through the channel, mixing it with other chemicals so you can, for example, detect whether you have COVID or high blood sugar levels,\" Chen said.</p><p>He said the new 3D printing platform, with its microscale channels, allowed for other applications, such as particle sorting. A particle sorter is a type of microfluidic chip that makes use of different sized chambers that can separate different sized particles. This could offer significant benefits to cancer detection and research.</p><p>\"Tumor cells are slightly bigger than normal cells, which are around 20 microns. Tumor cells could be over 100 microns,\" Chen said. \"Right now, we use biopsies to check for cancer cells; cutting organ or tissue from a patient to reveal a mix of healthy cells and tumor cells. Instead, we could use simple microfluidic devices to flow (the sample) through channels with accurately printed heights to separate cells into different sizes so we don\'t allow those healthy cells to interfere with our detection.\"</p><p>Chen said the research team was now in the process of filing a patent application for the new 3D printing method, and is seeking collaboration to commercialize the fabrication technique for medical testing devices.</p>','2022-04-12 17:29:05.310174','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Southern California','Researchers have developed a 3D printing technique to fabricate microfluidic devices for biomedical applications at a microscale not previously possible.\n',1,137,'<li>Yang Xu, Fangjie Qi, Huachao Mao, Songwei Li, Yizhen Zhu, Jingwen Gong, Lu Wang, Noah Malmstadt, Yong Chen. <strong>In-situ transfer vat photopolymerization for transparent microfluidic device fabrication</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28579-z\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-28579-z</a>\n</li>'),(2037,'Researchers outline need for new approach to COVID-19 vaccine testing','researchers-outline-need-for-new-approach-to-covid-19-vaccine-testing','2022-04-12 17:29:19.532583',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Some of Rutgers\' top health researchers are calling for a change in our approach to developing COVID-19 vaccines, and vaccines to fight future pandemics, to incorporate both conventional and challenge trails. Conventional randomized controlled trials are where participants receive a vaccine or placebo and then may or may not be exposed as they continue with their lives over the course of the months that follow. Human challenge vaccine trials are where participants receive a vaccine or placebo and are then artificially exposed to the virus.</p><p>The commentary by bioethicist Nir Eyal and epidemiologists Tobias Gerhard and Brian Strom (the latter is chancellor of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences) -- published in <em>Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety</em> -- examines how this parallel approach to vaccine trials can lead to faster and more accurate vaccine assessment and more effective pandemic response.</p><p>The researchers say that further vaccine testing could help settle remaining questions about how effective the shots are at blocking infection against old and new virus strains. It could also reveal the most effective dosing and timing between shots, the level of protection compared to natural immunity and how well vaccines work in groups that were underrepresented in initial trials.</p><p>While some researchers proposed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic that challenge trials take place, others argued that too little was known about the virus and that conducting the trials would be too dangerous. They were not used for the studies that led to approval of the major COVID-19 vaccines but are now being used in testing.</p><p>\"The vigorous discussions about vaccine trial designs in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic unfortunately played out as a mostly adversarial debate between pro-challenge trial and pro-conventional trial supporters. We felt that there was an overlooked third approach that involved combining strengths from both designs and could facilitate better outcomes throughout the remainder of the COVID-19 pandemic and in future pandemics,\" says Gerhard, Director, Center for Pharmacoepidemiology and Treatment Science at Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research (IFH) and Professor, Rutgers Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy.</p><p>The Rutgers researchers\' parallel approach, called \"Combining Conventional and Challenge trials (CCC),\" would involve trials of both types, conducted either simultaneously or at different times.</p><p>\"In a pandemic, the value of obtaining information as early as possible is so vast that \'CCC\' is ethically preferable to any single trial, and preparations for a future pandemic should include laying the groundwork for a CCC\',\" said Eyal, Henry Rutgers Professor of Bioethics and Director, Center for Population-Level Bioethics at Rutgers IFH.</p><p>Eyal and his colleagues say that researchers will be able to collect more information and increase confidence in the efficacy of vaccines.</p><p>\"When either human challenge- or conventional trials are permitted, it may be even more advisable to combine conventional and challenge testing for surer, faster, and more comprehensive vaccine assessments and a fuller understanding of the infection and the disease,\" said Gerhard.</p><p>Two trials instead of one would conserve resources, answer more questions, and increase the chance that at least one trial would be successful, they said.</p><p>\"The added value of faster, more informative completion of testing of the central weapon against a pandemic that threatens an exceptional number of people globally tends to be very high,\" Strom said.</p>','2022-04-12 17:29:19.532583','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Rutgers University','Researchers present reasons to assess the effectiveness and safety of vaccines with both conventional and challenge trials and argue that pandemic preparedness should include groundwork for both trial types.\n',1,74,'<li>Tobias Gerhard, Brian L. Strom, Nir Eyal. <strong>Pandemic vaccine testing: Combining conventional and challenge studies</strong>. <em>Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pds.5429\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/pds.5429</a>\n</li>'),(2038,'Researchers map lung development after birth into late childhood','researchers-map-lung-development-after-birth-into-late-childhood','2022-04-12 17:40:27.652360',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">How do the lungs develop after taking their first breaths outside the womb? What cellular events and changes early in life give rise to lung malfunction and disease? To help answer these questions, scientists have constructed the first single-cell atlas of postnatal lung development in humans and mice.</p><p>The research could help provide a more detailed understanding -- at the level of individual cells -- of which genetic and epigenetic factors affect lung health across the human lifespan, starting from birth.</p><p>The work, recently published in <em>Cell Genomics</em>, was led by a team of researchers at the University of California San Diego and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.</p><p>By analyzing lung tissue samples from newborn and young humans and mice, the researchers were able to gain insights on how certain cell types in the lung originate and change during childhood.</p><p>\"These are unique samples that we\'ve collected information on during a time in lung development that has not been well studied,\" said first author Thu Elizabeth Duong, a physician-scientist in pediatric respiratory medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine and pulmonologist at Rady Children\'s Hospital-San Diego. \"What\'s exciting is being able to see, at single-cell resolution, what the lung cells are doing at this stage in development.\"</p><p>The goal is to build a so-called \"reference map\" of the human lungs. Such a map would serve as a foundation to understand the cellular differences between healthy and diseased lungs. This work represents a small step toward building a reference for the pediatric population.</p><p>\"Your respiratory health gets shaped by what happens during your early years of life. So when things go wrong, we can refer back to these early years to identify potential causes of disease,\" said Duong.</p><p>\"In cases of lung abnormality or disease, we can zoom in and examine what specific types of cells are different from their counterparts in the healthy references and what are the molecular pathways underlying these changes,\" said Kun Zhang, professor and chair of bioengineering at UC San Diego who is a senior author of the study. \"Diagnosis and treatment could then be developed based on differences from the reference map.\"</p><p>The lungs are an important barrier in the body. They let in and maintain the balance of vital substances such as oxygen, while removing wastes such as carbon dioxide. And they filter the air that we breathe. The researchers hope that their findings here will lay the groundwork for more in-depth studies of how environmental factors such as exposure to air pollution and smoking influence lung health and disease throughout different stages of life.</p><p>To construct their map, the researchers analyzed post-mortem human lung tissues that were collected at different time points, starting from day one and up to 9 years after birth. The researchers also collected lung tissue samples from mice at matching time points between one day and nearly one month after birth.</p><p>The researchers used next-generation single-cell sequencing technologies developed in Zhang\'s lab to analyze individual nuclei of more than 80,000 human and mouse lung cells combined.</p><p>With this analysis, the researchers could start to map developmental pathways for different lung cell types including alveolar epithelial type 1 cells. These cells are vital for the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide gases. The researchers gained clues as to how alveolar type 1 cells communicate with other cells such as myofibroblasts, and how this communication could play a role in alveolar cell development.</p><p>The study also revealed a unique population of fibroblast cells in the human lung that was not observed in mice. These fibroblasts are cells in connective tissue that play a role in how the lungs stretch. The researchers also found cell states in the human lung that are present in early life at birth but disappear by 9 years of age.</p><p>\"These data are helping us piece together how key cell types in the lung come into existence,\" said Duong. \"We hope this will serve as a valuable resource for lung researchers moving forward.\"</p>','2022-04-12 17:40:27.652360','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - San Diego','How do the lungs develop after taking their first breaths outside the womb? What cellular events and changes early in life give rise to lung malfunction and disease? To help answer these questions, scientists have constructed the first single-cell atlas of postnatal lung development in humans and mice. The research could help provide a more detailed understanding -- at the level of individual cells -- of which genetic and epigenetic factors affect lung health across the human lifespan, starting from birth.\n',1,41,'<li>Thu Elizabeth Duong, Yan Wu, Brandon Chin Sos, Weixiu Dong, Siddharth Limaye, Lauraine H. Rivier, Greg Myers, James S. Hagood, Kun Zhang. <strong>A single-cell regulatory map of postnatal lung alveologenesis in humans and mice</strong>. <em>Cell Genomics</em>, 2022; 2 (3): 100108 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2022.100108\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.xgen.2022.100108</a>\n</li>'),(2039,'New study reveals that exposure to a group of widely used ‘forever chemicals’ may increase diabetes risk in middle-aged women','new-study-reveals-that-exposure-to-a-group-of-widely-used-‘forever-chemicals’-may-increase-diabetes-risk-in-middle-aged-women','2022-04-12 20:18:13.747752',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A new study published in <em>Diabetologia</em> (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes [EASD]) finds that exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) -- a large and diverse group of industrial chemicals found in many everyday products -- is associated with an increased risk of developing diabetes in midlife women. The study is by Dr Sung Kyun Park and colleagues at the Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.</p><p>PFAS are a group of more than 4,700 synthetic chemicals, first developed in the 1940s and which are widely used in industry as well as in consumer products such as non-stick cookware, water and stain-repellent coatings, food packaging, carpeting, firefighting foam, and even cosmetics. Their molecular structure is based on a linked chain of carbon atoms with one or more fluorine atoms attached, and the extreme stability of those carbon-fluorine bonds make PFAS highly resistant to being broken down. This durability causes PFAS to persist and accumulate in the environment as well as in the bodies of humans and animals where they can remain for years, leading to them being referred to as \"forever chemicals.\"</p><p>Their ubiquity and persistence in both the environment and the human body has led to PFAS exposure becoming a serious public health concern, resulting in restrictions and even bans on their use. At least one type of PFAS was present in the blood samples of nearly every American tested by the US Biomonitoring Program, and they were also detected in the drinking water supply of more than 200 million people in the USA. A recent review of possible health effects of these chemicals suggests that exposure to some may be associated with pre-eclampsia, altered levels of liver enzymes, increased blood fats, decreased antibody response to vaccines, and low birth weight, although causal relationships have yet to be established.</p><p>Many PFAS have molecular structures which resemble those of naturally occurring fatty acids, resulting in them having similar chemical properties and effects on the human body. Fatty acids act on a class of protein molecules found in cells called peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs), which act as fat and insulin sensors and are the main regulators of the formation and development of new adipocytes (fat cells) as well as the control of the body\'s fat and glucose levels. Structurally and chemically similar PFAS compounds could potentially interact with the same PPARs, disrupting their regulatory behaviour and suggesting a possible mechanism for these substances to affect diabetes risk.</p><p>Experimental studies with cell cultures suggest that exposure to the high levels of PFAS found in some humans may interfere with PPAR function, leading to increased production of fat cells, changes to fat and sugar metabolism, and abnormal inflammatory responses.</p><p>The sample group for the study was selected from the Study of Women\'s Health Across the Nation (SWAN), an ongoing multi-site, multi-ethnic, community-based prospective cohort study of midlife women to characterise the menopausal transition and its association with subsequent health endpoints. A total of 3302 premenopausal participants aged 42-52 years who met the selection criteria for SWAN were recruited at seven locations in the USA during 1996-1997, and given a baseline clinical examination which was repeated annually.</p><p>The SWAN-Multi-Pollutant Study (SWAN-MPS) was initiated in 2016 to evaluate the roles of environmental pollutants in chronic diseases during and after the menopausal transition. It analysed the stored blood and urine samples from 1400 of the study participants, which had been collected by SWAN from the third follow-up (1999-2000) onwards. These were tested for the presence of environmental chemicals including seven PFAS.</p><p>After excluding women who had diabetes at SWAN-MPS baseline, as well as participants for whom insufficient data was available, the authors were left with a final sample of 1237 women with a median age of 49.4 years who had been monitored from 1999-2000 through to 2017. During the 17,005 person-years of follow-up there were 102 cases of incident diabetes: a rate of 6 cases per 1000 person-years. Compared to participants who remained free of the disease, those who developed diabetes were more likely to be black, from Southeast Michigan (a more socioeconomically disadvantaged area), less educated, less physically active, have a larger energy intake and higher BMI at baseline.</p><p>The authors observed that: \"Higher serum concentrations of certain PFAS were associated with higher risk of incident diabetes in midlife women.\" They also note: \"The joint effects of PFAS mixtures were greater than those for individual PFAS, suggesting a potential additive or synergistic effect of multiple PFAS on diabetes risk.\"</p><p>Serum concentrations of PFAS were categorised into high/middle/low exposure groups (tertiles), and a hazard ratio (HR) for incident diabetes was calculated by comparing the incidence rate in the \'high\' or \'middle\' tertiles to that in the lowest tertile (reference group). The team found that combined exposure to the seven different PFAS had a stronger association with diabetes risk than was seen with individual compounds. Women in the \'high\' tertile for all seven were 2.62 times more likely to develop diabetes than those in the \'low\' category, while increased risk associated with each individual PFAS ranged from 36% to 85%, suggesting a potential additive or synergistic effect of multiple PFAS on diabetes risk.</p><p>The strength of the association between combined exposure and incident diabetes rates also suggests that PFAS may have substantial clinical impacts on diabetes risk. The authors point out the 2.62 times increased risk was roughly equivalent to the magnitude of having overweight or obesity (BMI between 25 kg/m<sup>2</sup> and 30 kg/m<sup>2</sup>) compared with having normal weight [(BMI less than 25 kg/m<sup>2</sup> (HR 2.89)], and even greater than that for current smokers vs never smokers (HR 2.30) observed in their study population. They say: \"Given the widespread exposure to PFAS in the general population, the expected benefit of reducing exposure to these ubiquitous chemicals might be considerable.\"</p><p>This prospective cohort study supports the hypothesis that exposure to PFAS, individually and as mixtures, may increase the risk of incident diabetes in midlife women. Although the effect sizes in men and other populations not included in their study are unknown, if these results are also applicable to men as well as to individuals of all ages and ethnicities regardless of location, then approximately 370,000 cases (around 25%) out of the 1.5 million Americans newly diagnosed with diabetes each year could be attributable to PFAS exposure. These findings suggest that PFAS may be an important risk factor for diabetes and have a substantial public health impact.</p><p>The authors conclude: \"Reduced exposure to these \'forever and everywhere chemicals\' even before entering midlife may be a key preventative approach to lowering the risk of diabetes. Policy changes around drinking water and consumer products could prevent population-wide exposure.\" They advise that regulations which focus on a few specific compounds may be ineffective and persistent PFAS may need to be regulated as a \'class\'. Finally, they note that clinicians need to be aware of PFAS as unrecognised risk factors for diabetes and to be prepared to counsel patients about sources of exposure and potential health effects.</p>','2022-04-12 20:18:13.747752','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Diabetologia','A new study finds that exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) - a large and diverse group of industrial chemicals found in many everyday products - is associated with an increased risk of developing diabetes in midlife women.\n',1,46,'<li>Sung Kyun Park, Xin Wang, Ning Ding, Carrie A. Karvonen-Gutierrez, Antonia M. Calafat, William H. Herman, Bhramar Mukherjee, Siobán D. Harlow. <strong>Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and incident diabetes in midlife women: the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN)</strong>. <em>Diabetologia</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00125-022-05695-5\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1007/s00125-022-05695-5</a>\n</li>'),(2040,'Discovery reveals new way to inhibit key cancer driver, other mutated genes','discovery-reveals-new-way-to-inhibit-key-cancer-driver,-other-mutated-genes','2022-04-12 21:16:21.944442',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">CU Boulder researchers have discovered a new way to inhibit the most commonly mutated gene underlying human tumor growth, opening the door to new therapeutic strategies for cancer and a host of other diseases.</p><p>The discovery, published April 5 in the journal <em>Cell Reports</em>, marks an important step forward in the decades-long quest to target transcription factors (TFs), a notoriously hard-to-block class of proteins which, when mutated or dysregulated, can disrupt cell function and drive illness.</p><p>\"This class of proteins represents one of the most high-impact therapeutic targets in biomedicine,\" said senior author and biochemistry Professor Dylan Taatjes. \"We provide a completely new strategy for blocking transcription factor function that could have broad applications to many diseases, including and beyond cancer.\"</p><p>More than 1,500 transcription factors exist in the human body, each responsible for binding to specific sequences in DNA and transcribing or \"decoding\" the body\'s genetic blueprint to instruct a cell what to do.</p><p>Different TFs act in different kinds of cells (muscle, skin, blood, etc.), regulating everything from inflammation to cholesterol metabolism to wound healing to controlled cell death, which is key to inhibiting cancer.</p><p>When a TF is mutated, those instructions can go awry, turning a beneficial protein into a harmful one \"like Jekyll and Hyde,\" said Taatjes.</p><p>For instance, mutations in the p53 transcription factor, the subject of this study, can change its function from a tumor suppressor to a tumor promoter.</p><p>For years, scientists have strived to develop methods to inhibit mutated transcription factors. Because they are all molecularly similar in the regions that bind to DNA, targeting one can indirectly target others, disrupting normal cell functions. Transcription factors also contain a section, called an activation domain, that is structurally disordered, making it hard to develop a molecule that will block it.</p><p>\"Unfortunately, despite the huge potential and years of effort, therapeutic targeting of transcription factors has proven largely intractable,\" Taatjes said.</p><p><strong>A promising workaround</strong></p><p>Taatjes and a team of scientists, including Alanna Schepartz, professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, have spent years developing a workaround.</p><p>They set out to selectively inhibit p53, which is present in every kind of cell and plays a critical role in human development and in the body\'s stress response.</p><p>To do so, instead of targeting p53 itself, they targeted a 26-subunit complex aptly named Mediator. Mediator attaches to p53 and other transcription factors, serving as a bridge between them and the enzyme that decodes sections of the body\'s genetic blueprint. In essence, the transcription factor must click into Mediator, like a key in a lock, which then activates the decoding process.</p><p>In laboratory studies of human cancer cells, the researchers found that when they applied a novel peptide, which they designed based upon the p53 activation domain, they could prevent p53 from working. The team ashowed that the peptide worked by blocking p53 from clicking in to Mediator, much like jamming up the lock before the real key (p53 itself) could be inserted.</p><p>\"A decades-long goal has been to target drug transcription factors directly,\" said Taatjes. \"Here we have found a way to get the functional equivalent without actually targeting the transcription factor but Mediator instead. And, importantly, this does not negatively affect other transcription factors in the cell.\"</p><p>Taatjes stressed that the work is a proof-of-concept study, and that much more research must be done before such a strategy could become implemented in the clinic.</p><p>Ultimately, he said the approach could be applied to many other TFs that have been implicated in disease, opening the door to new treatment strategies for everything from heart disease to neurological disorders.</p><p>The unique method they used -- using a transcription factor activation domain as a starting point rather than screening thousands of compounds -- could also lead to faster, cheaper ways to develop new leads for therapeutics.</p><p>\"The methods we discuss here could potentially apply to any disease that is driven by aberrant transcription factor function,\" Taatjes said.</p>','2022-04-12 21:16:21.944442','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Colorado at Boulder','Scientists have discovered a new way to inhibit the most commonly mutated gene underlying human tumor growth, paving the way for new treatments for cancer and a host of other diseases.\n',1,41,'<li>Benjamin L. Allen, Kim Quach, Taylor Jones, Cecilia B. Levandowski, Christopher C. Ebmeier, Jonathan D. Rubin, Timothy Read, Robin D. Dowell, Alanna Schepartz, Dylan J. Taatjes. <strong>Suppression of p53 response by targeting p53-Mediator binding with a stapled peptide</strong>. <em>Cell Reports</em>, 2022; 39 (1): 110630 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110630\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110630</a>\n</li>'),(2041,'Machine learning predicts conduct disorder in kids','machine-learning-predicts-conduct-disorder-in-kids','2022-04-12 21:16:30.866030',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Conduct disorder (CD) is a common yet complex psychiatric disorder featuring aggressive and destructive behavior. Factors contributing to the development of CD span biological, psychological, and social domains. Researchers have identified a myriad of risk factors that could help predict CD, but they are often considered in isolation. Now, a new study uses a machine-learning approach for the first time to assess risk factors across all three domains in combination and predict later development of CD with high accuracy.</p><p>The study appears in <em>Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging</em>, published by Elsevier.</p><p>The researchers used baseline data from over 2,300 children aged 9 to 10 enrolled in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, a longitudinal study following the biopsychosocial development of children. The researchers \"trained\" their machine-learning model using previously identified risk factors from across multiple biopsychosocial domains. For example, measures included brain imaging (biological), cognitive abilities (psychological), and family characteristics (social). The model correctly predicted the development of CD two years later with over 90% accuracy.</p><p>Cameron Carter, MD, Editor of <em>Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging</em>, said of the study: \"These striking results using task-based functional MRI to investigate the function of the reward system suggest that risk for later depression in children of depressed mothers may depend more on mothers\' responses to their children\'s emotional behavior than on the mother\'s mood <em>per se</em>.\"</p><p>The ability to accurately predict who might develop CD would aid researchers and healthcare workers in designing interventions for at-risk youth with the potential to minimize or even prevent the harmful effects of CD on children and their families.</p><p>\"Findings from our study highlight the added value of combining neural, social, and psychological factors to predict conduct disorder, a burdensome psychiatric problem in youth,\" said senior author Arielle Baskin-Sommers, PhD at Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. \"These findings offer promise for developing more precise identification and intervention approaches that consider the multiple factors that contribute to this disorder. They also highlight the utility of leveraging large, open-access datasets, such as ABCD, that collect measures about the individual across levels of analysis.\"</p>','2022-04-12 21:16:30.866030','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Elsevier','Conduct disorder (CD) is a common yet complex psychiatric disorder featuring aggressive and destructive behavior. Factors contributing to the development of CD span biological, psychological, and social domains. Researchers have identified a myriad of risk factors that could help predict CD, but they are often considered in isolation. Now, a new study uses a machine-learning approach for the first time to assess risk factors across all three domains in combination and predict later development of CD with high accuracy.\n',1,27,'<li>Lena Chan, Cortney Simmons, Scott Tillem, May Conley, Inti A. Brazil, Arielle Baskin-Sommers. <strong>Classifying Conduct Disorder using a biopsychosocial model and machine learning method</strong>. <em>Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2022.02.004\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.bpsc.2022.02.004</a>\n</li>'),(2042,'Microscaffolds: A new strategy in tissue engineering','microscaffolds:-a-new-strategy-in-tissue-engineering','2022-04-12 21:16:33.225311',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">It is an age old dream of medicine: if arbitrary kinds of tissue could be produced artificially from stem cells, then injuries could be healed with the body\'s own cells, and one day it might even be possible to produce artificial organs. However, it is difficult to get cells into the desired shape. The methods that have existed so far can be divided into two fundamentally different categories: Either one first creates small tissue building blocks, such as round cell agglomerates or flat cell sheets, and then assembles them, or one initially creates a fine, porous scaffold that is then cultivated with cells. Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages.</p><p>At TU Wien (Vienna), a third approach has now been developed: Using a special laser-based 3D printing technique, micro-scaffolds with a diameter of less than a third of a millimetre can be produced, which can accommodate thousands of cells. In this way, a high cell density is present from the start, but one still has the flexibility adapt the shape and mechanical properties of the structure.</p><p><strong>With scaffold or without?</strong></p><p>\"The scaffold-based approaches that have been developed so far have great advantages: If you first make a porous scaffold, you can precisely define its mechanical properties,\" says Dr Olivier Guillaume, lead author of the current study, who is researching at TU Wien in the team of Prof Aleksandr Ovsianikov at the Institute of Materials Science and Technology. \"The scaffold can be soft or hard as needed, it consists of biocompatible materials that are degraded in the body. They can even be equipped with special biomolecules that promote tissue formation.\"</p><p>The downside, however, is that it is difficult to quickly and completely populate such a scaffold with cells. A lot of manual work is still needed here today, even though research is already being done on automated processes. Especially with large scaffolds, it takes a long time for the cells to migrate into the interior of the structure; often the cell density remains very low and inhomogeneous.</p><p>The situation is completely different if no such scaffold is used. It is also possible to simply grow small cell agglomerates, which are then joined together in the desired shape so that they eventually merge. With this technique, the number of cells is large from the start, but there are hardly any possibilities to intervene in the process. For example, it can happen that the cell spheres change their size or shape and the tissue ends up with different properties than desired.</p><p><strong>Living cells meet high-resolution 3D printing process</strong></p><p>\"We have now succeeded in combining the advantages of both approaches -- using an extremely high-resolution 3D printing method that we have been researching here at TU Wien for years,\" says Prof. Aleksandr Ovsianikov.</p><p>This technique, two-photon polymerisation, uses a light-sensitive material that is cured with a laser beam exactly at the desired positions. In this way, structures can be produced with an accuracy in the range of less than one micrometre.</p><p>This laser method is now used to create filigree, highly porous scaffolds with a diameter of just under a third of a millimetre. The design of these micro-scaffolds enables the rapid generation of cell agglomerates inside. At the same time, the cells are protected from external mechanical damage, similar to the way a rally driver is protected by a race car roll cage.</p><p>\"These cell-filled scaffolds are relatively easy to handle and can coalesce,\" explains Aleksandr Ovsianikov. \"When many of them are brought into direct contact, it is possible to create large tissue constructs with a high initial cell density in a short time. Still, we can control the mechanical properties of the structure well.\"</p><p><strong>Cartilage and bone as first target tissues</strong></p><p>The underlying concept of this novel tissue engineering strategy was already presented in detail by the research group in 2018. Now, for the first time, it has been possible to show that this method actually works: \"We were able to show that the method actually delivers the benefits we were hoping for,\" says Aleksandr Ovsianikov. \"We used stem cells for our experiments, which can be induced to produce either cartilage or bone tissue. We were able to show that the cells from neighbouring scaffold units do indeed merge and actually form a single tissue. In doing so, the structure retains its shape. In the future, these scaffold units could even be made injectable for use in minimally invasive surgery.\"</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-04-12 21:16:33.225311','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Vienna University of Technology','A new strategy in tissue engineering has been developed: Tiny spherical microscaffolds are created in a high precision 3D printer. They are cultivated with living cells and then assembled. The cells keep multiplying, creating a tissue, the scaffolds are eventually degraded.\n',1,29,'<li>Olivier Guillaume, Oliver Kopinski-Grünwald, Gregor Weisgrab, Theresia Baumgartner, Aysu Arslan, Karin Whitmore, Sandra Van Vlierberghe, Aleksandr Ovsianikov. <strong>Hybrid spheroid microscaffolds as modular tissue units to build macro-tissue assemblies for tissue engineering</strong>. <em>Acta Biomaterialia</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2022.03.010\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.actbio.2022.03.010</a>\n</li>'),(2043,'On the edge','on-the-edge','2022-04-12 21:16:36.490850',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Probing the world of the very, very small is a wonderland for physicists. At this nano-scale, where materials as thin as 100 atoms are studied, totally new and unexpected phenomena are discovered. Here, nature ceases to behave in a way that is predictable by the macroscopic law of physics, unlike what goes on in the world around us or out in the cosmos.</p><p>Dr. Yonathan Anahory at Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU)\'s Racah Institute of Physics led the research team, which included HU doctoral student Avia Noah. He spoke of his astonishment when looking at images of the magnetism generated by nano-magnets, \"it was the first time we saw a magnet behaving this way,\" as he described the images that revealed the phenomenon of \"edge magnetism.\"</p><p>The images showed that the magnetic material the HU researchers were studying only retained magnetism on its edge -- in fact only within 10 nanometers of the edge (remember a human hair is around 100, 000 nanometers). Their results were published in the journal <em>Nano Letters.</em></p><p>This nano-effect, although very small, could actually have wide applications in our daily lives. \"In today\'s technological race to make every component smaller and more energy efficient, effort is focused towards small magnets with different shapes,\" Anahory shared. The new edge magnetism offers the possibility of making long wire magnets only 10 nanometers thick, which could curve into any shape. \"It could revolutionize the way we make spintronics devices,\" added Anahory, referring to the next-generation nano-electronic devices with reduced power consumption and increased memory and processing capabilities</p><p>The actual discovery of edge magnetism was somewhat serendipitous: Anahory decided to have a look at a new magnetic nano-material (CGT) produced by his colleague at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, in Spain. The discovery ultimately relied on images produced by a new type of magnetic microscopy developed in Israel, which can measure the magnetic field of a single electron. Discovering new phenomena relies on highly sophisticated new technologies. Further, the phenomena themselves will be at the heart of even more advanced technologies as edge magnetism has demonstrated.</p>','2022-04-12 21:16:36.490850','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'The Hebrew University of Jerusalem','When looking at images of the magnetism generated by nano-magnets, researchers revealed the phenomenon of \'edge magnetism\': the magnetic material only retained magnetism on its edge -- in fact only within 10 nanometers of the edge.\n',1,27,'<li>Avia Noah, Hen Alpern, Sourabh Singh, Alon Gutfreund, Gilad Zisman, Tomer D. Feld, Atzmon Vakahi, Sergei Remennik, Yossi Paltiel, Martin Emile Huber, Victor Barrena, Hermann Suderow, Hadar Steinberg, Oded Millo, Yonathan Anahory. <strong>Interior and Edge Magnetization in Thin Exfoliated CrGeTe<sub>3</sub> Films</strong>. <em>Nano Letters</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c04665\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c04665</a>\n</li>'),(2044,'Long-term in vivo imaging technique developed to better understand and treat spinal cord injury','long-term-in-vivo-imaging-technique-developed-to-better-understand-and-treat-spinal-cord-injury','2022-04-12 21:16:42.459480',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A research team led by scientists from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has developed an innovative technology for <em>in vivo</em> imaging of the important biological processes involved in the injury and repair of spinal cords, paving the way for a better understanding of the pathology and potential treatment of spinal cord injury (SCI).</p><p>A tight bundle of neural cells (neurons and glia) and nerve pathways (axons), the spinal cord serves as a primary information highway between the brain and the peripheral nerves in the rest of our body. Damage to the spinal cord is a devastating and largely irreversible neurological trauma, and can result in lifelong disability and paralysis with no available cure.</p><p>While Imaging plays an important role in understanding spinal cord functions and its response to pathological insults and therapeutic procedures, there is currently no effective method to capture the injured spinal cord at the level of cellular processes without activating the immune response. Conventional imaging techniques require the patients to have their spinal cord tissue removed to increase image resolution, or run the risk of triggering immune responses in spinal cord tissue, which may affect the disease process being investigated.</p><p>Now, a research team led by Prof. QU Jianan, professor of Department of Electrical &amp; Computer Engineering, and Prof. LIU Kai, associate professor of Division of Life Science at HKUST, has demonstrated a new approach to achieve long-term, repetitive, stable, high-resolution, and inflammation-free <em>in vivo</em> spinal cord imaging in mouse models.</p><p>In their proposed protocol, ligamentum flavum (LF) -- the ligaments connecting adjacent vertebrae in our spine -- is retained to protect the underlying spinal cord tissue and reduce the risk of imaging window activating inflammation. But retaining the LF layer also means sacrificing the imaging quality, because the layer introduces optical scattering and results in decreased penetration depth of spinal cord imaging.</p><p>To solve this problem, the team applied iodixanol, an FDA-approved non-toxic compound, as an optical clearing medium for the imaging window and greatly enhanced its transparency as well as image contrast and resolution. Compared with the prior methods, the iodixanol-based optical clearing technique allows the researchers to remove less tissue above the spinal cord without compromising imaging quality, thus significantly extending the number of imaging sessions to up to 15 sessions over 167 days.</p><p>Using this optically cleared intervertebral window, the team studied neuron-glia dynamics and observed strengthened contact of microglia with the nodes of Ranvier during axonal degeneration, opening a promising way to study the interaction between immune cells and nodes of Ranvier under normal and injury conditions. The results were recently published in <em>Nature Communications</em>.</p><p>\"Considering the difficulties associated with long-term and repetitive spinal cord imaging, this innovation will be an important and widely used tool for the study of spinal cord injury,\" said Prof. Qu, who is an expert of optical engineering and science with extensive experience in <em>in vivo </em>linear and nonlinear optical spectroscopy and imaging of biological tissues from a variety of animal models.</p><p>\"By avoiding surgery-induced inflammation, we can track microglia from resting to activation stages and understand its functional interaction with degenerating and regenerating axons in the spinal cord,\" added Prof. Liu, whose research interests include the cellular and molecular mechanisms of axonal regeneration in the adult mammalian central nervous system. \"<em>In vivo</em> imaging in living animal models will reveal new biological insights leading to efficient therapeutic strategies for SCI treatment.\"</p>','2022-04-12 21:16:42.459480','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Hong Kong University of Science and Technology','A research team has developed an innovative technology for in vivo imaging of the important biological processes involved in the injury and repair of spinal cords, paving the way for a better understanding of the pathology and potential treatment of spinal cord injury (SCI).\n',1,156,'<li>Wanjie Wu, Sicong He, Junqiang Wu, Congping Chen, Xuesong Li, Kai Liu, Jianan Y. Qu. <strong>Long-term in vivo imaging of mouse spinal cord through an optically cleared intervertebral window</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29496-x\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-29496-x</a>\n</li>'),(2045,'Engineering team develops new AI algorithms for high accuracy and cost effective medical image diagnostics','engineering-team-develops-new-ai-algorithms-for-high-accuracy-and-cost-effective-medical-image-diagnostics','2022-04-12 21:16:57.950471',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Medical imaging is an important part of modern healthcare, enhancing both the precision, reliability and development of treatment for various diseases. Artificial intelligence has also been widely used to further enhance the process.</p><p>However, conventional medical image diagnosis employing AI algorithms require large amounts of annotations as supervision signals for model training. To acquire accurate labels for the AI algorithms -- radiologists, as part of the clinical routine, prepare radiology reports for each of their patients, followed by annotation staff extracting and confirming structured labels from those reports using human-defined rules and existing natural language processing (NLP) tools. The ultimate accuracy of extracted labels hinges on the quality of human work and various NLP tools. The method comes at a heavy price, being both labour intensive and time consuming.</p><p>An engineering team at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has developed a new approach \"REFERS\" (Reviewing Free-text Reports for Supervision), which can cut human cost down by 90%, by enabling the automatic acquisition of supervision signals from hundreds of thousands of radiology reports at the same time. It attains a high accuracy in predictions, surpassing its counterpart of conventional medical image diagnosis employing AI algorithms.</p><p>The innovative approach marks a solid step towards realizing generalized medical artificial intelligence. The breakthrough was published in <em>Nature Machine Intelligence</em> in the paper titled \"Generalized radiograph representation learning via cross-supervision between images and free-text radiology reports.\"</p><p>\"AI-enabled medical image diagnosis has the potential to support medical specialists in reducing their workload and improving the diagnostic efficiency and accuracy, including but not limited to reducing the diagnosis time and detecting subtle disease patterns,\" said Professor YU Yizhou, leader of the team from HKU\'s Department of Computer Science under the Faculty of Engineering.</p><p>\"We believe abstract and complex logical reasoning sentences in radiology reports provide sufficient information for learning easily transferable visual features. With appropriate training, REFERS directly learns radiograph representations from free-text reports without the need to involve manpower in labelling.\" Professor Yu remarked.</p><p>For training REFERS, the research team uses a public database with 370,000 X-Ray images, and associated radiology reports, on 14 common chest diseases including atelectasis, cardiomegaly, pleural effusion, pneumonia and pneumothorax. The researchers managed to build a radiograph recognition model using 100 radiographs only, and attains 83% accuracy in predictions. When the number was increased to 1,000, their model exhibits amazing performance with an accuracy of 88.2%, which surpasses its counterpart trained with 10,000 radiologist annotations (accuracy at 87.6%). When 10,000 radiographs were used, the accuracy is at 90.1%. In general, an accuracy above 85% in predictions is useful in real-world clinical applications.</p><p>REFERS achieves the goal by accomplishing two report-related tasks, i.e., report generation and radiograph-report matching. In the first task, REFERS translates radiographs into text reports by first encoding radiographs into an intermediate representation, which is then used to predict text reports via a decoder network. A cost function is defined to measure the similarity between predicted and real report texts, based on which gradient-based optimization is employed to train the neural network and update its weights.</p><p>As for the second task, REFERS first encodes both radiographs and free-text reports into the same semantic space, where representations of each report and its associated radiographs are aligned via contrastive learning.</p><p>\"Compared to conventional methods that heavily rely on human annotations, REFERS has the ability to acquire supervision from each word in the radiology reports. We can substantially reduce the amount of data annotation by 90% and the cost to build medical artificial intelligence. It marks a significant step towards realizing generalized medical artificial intelligence, \" said the paper\'s first author Dr ZHOU Hong-Yu.</p>','2022-04-12 21:16:57.950471','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'The University of Hong Kong','Medical imaging is an important part of modern healthcare, enhancing both the precision, reliability and development of treatment for various diseases. Artificial intelligence has also been widely used to further enhance the process. However, conventional medical image diagnosis employing AI algorithms require large amounts of annotations as supervision signals for model training. To acquire accurate labels for the AI algorithms -- radiologists, as part of the clinical routine, prepare radiology reports for each of their patients, followed by annotation staff extracting and confirming structured labels from those reports using human-defined rules and existing natural language processing (NLP) tools. The ultimate accuracy of extracted labels hinges on the quality of human work and various NLP tools. The method comes at a heavy price, being both labour intensive and time consuming. An engineering team has now developed a new approach which can cut human cost down by 90%, by enabling the automatic acquisition of supervision signals from hundreds of thousands of radiology reports at the same time. It attains a high accuracy in predictions, surpassing its counterpart of conventional medical image diagnosis employing AI algorithms.\n',1,27,'<li>Hong-Yu Zhou, Xiaoyu Chen, Yinghao Zhang, Ruibang Luo, Liansheng Wang, Yizhou Yu. <strong>Generalized radiograph representation learning via cross-supervision between images and free-text radiology reports</strong>. <em>Nature Machine Intelligence</em>, 2022; 4 (1): 32 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42256-021-00425-9\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s42256-021-00425-9</a>\n</li>'),(2046,'Bacteria generate electricity from methane','bacteria-generate-electricity-from-methane','2022-04-12 21:17:00.341035',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Generating power while purifying the environment of greenhouse gases should be achievable using bacteria. In a new publication, microbiologists from Radboud University have demonstrated that it is possible to make methane-consuming bacteria generate power in the lab. The study will be published in <em>Frontiers in Microbiology</em> on April 12.</p><p>The bacteria, <em>Candidatus </em>Methanoperedens, use methane to grow and naturally occur in fresh water such as ditches and lakes. In the Netherlands, the bacteria mostly thrive in locations where the surface and groundwater are contaminated with nitrogen, as they require nitrate to break down methane.</p><p>The researchers initially wanted to know more about the conversion processes occurring in the microorganism. In addition, they were also curious whether it would be possible to use it to generate power. \"This could be very useful for the energy sector,\" says microbiologist and author Cornelia Welte. \"In the current biogas installations, methane is produced by microorganisms and subsequently burnt, which drives a turbine, thus generating power. Less than half of the biogas is converted into power, and this is the maximum achievable capacity. We want to evaluate whether we can do better using microorganisms.\"</p><p><strong>A kind of battery</strong></p><p>Fellow microbiologists from Nijmegen have previously shown that it is possible to generate power using anammox bacteria that use ammonium during the process instead of methane. \"The process in these bacteria is basically the same,\" says microbiologist Heleen Ouboter. \"We create a kind of battery with two terminals, where one of these is a biological terminal and the other one is a chemical terminal. We grow the bacteria on one of the electrodes, to which the bacteria donate electrons resulting from the conversion of methane.\"</p><p>Through this approach, the researchers managed to convert 31 percent of the methane into electricity, but they aim at higher efficiencies. \"We will continue focusing on improving the system,\" Welte says.</p>','2022-04-12 21:17:00.341035','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Radboud University Nijmegen','Generating power while purifying the environment of greenhouse gases should be achievable using bacteria. Microbiologists have demonstrated that it is possible to make methane-consuming bacteria generate power in the lab.\n',1,130,'<li>Heleen T. Ouboter, Tom Berben, Stefanie Berger, Mike S. M. Jetten, Tom Sleutels, Annemiek Ter Heijne, Cornelia U. Welte. <strong>Methane-Dependent Extracellular Electron Transfer at the Bioanode by the Anaerobic Archaeal Methanotroph “Candidatus Methanoperedens”</strong>. <em>Frontiers in Microbiology</em>, 2022; 13 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.820989\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.3389/fmicb.2022.820989</a>\n</li>'),(2047,'Ultrasound gave us our first baby pictures can it also help the blind see?','ultrasound-gave-us-our-first-baby-pictures-can-it-also-help-the-blind-see?','2022-04-12 21:17:02.934715',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The number of Americans with visual impairment or blindness is expected to jump to more than 8 million by the year 2050, according to research led by the USC Gayle and Edward Roski Eye Institute conducted back in 2016.</p><p>With the youngest baby boomers reaching 65 years old by 2029, age-related eye diseases and conditions are expected to swell during what\'s being called the \"silver tsunami.\"</p><p>According to medical experts, it\'s safe to say many of those cases will be caused by retinal degenerative diseases, the progressive degeneration of the light-sensitive photoreceptors in your retina.</p><p>Based on these estimates, there is an unmet need for new technologies that treat vision loss due to diseases of photoreceptor degeneration.</p><p>While there are no successful non-invasive therapeutics currently available for the treatment of vision loss, researchers at USC have come up with a new idea to address this growing problem.</p><p>Currently, ophthalmologists use electronic technology to directly stimulate retinal neurons by implanting electrode devices inside the eye, a technique that requires expensive and invasive surgery.</p><p>The research team in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering\'s Department of Biomedical Engineering is exploring a non-surgical solution that could restore sight by using another of the five senses.</p><p>Sound.</p><p><strong>Ultrasound Technology</strong></p><p>\"This is innovative technology,\" said Qifa Zhou, professor of biomedical engineering and ophthalmology at USC. \"Right now, we are doing animal studies trying to use ultrasound stimulation to replace electric stimulation.\"</p><p>The research group is led by Zhou, and Mark S. Humayun, professor of ophthalmology and biomedical engineering at USC, and one of the inventors of Argus II -- the world\'s first artificial retina.</p><p>\"The technology is advantageous since no surgery is required and no device will be implanted inside the body,\" said Gengxi Lu, a Ph.D. student in Zhou\'s lab. \"A wearable ultrasound device will generate ultrasound waves to stimulate the retina.\"</p><p>Similar to how shapes and bright spots appear when you gently push on your eyeball with your eyes closed; researchers realized that applying pressure to the eye can activate neurons and send signals to the brain.</p><p>Unlike a normal eye that is activated by light, the blind eyes were stimulated by mechanical pressures generated by ultrasound waves in this study.</p><p>\"The neurons present in the retina of the eye possess mechanically sensitive channels that respond to mechanical stimulation,\" Lu explained. \"These neurons are activated when we use ultrasound to generate mechanical pressure.\"</p><p><strong>How It Works</strong></p><p>To test this ultrasound approach, in pre-clinical studies the team at USC stimulated a blind rat\'s eyes using high-frequency ultrasound waves that are inaudible to humans.</p><p>The technology used in this research is comparable to the ultrasound probe used for baby imaging that sends and receives sound waves through a pregnant woman\'s stomach.</p><p>In this case, for retinal stimulation the research group created a small ultrasound device that can be directed at a specific region of the eye to send sound waves to the retina, which is located in the back of the eye.</p><p>Using these high-frequency sounds that can be manipulated and focused on a specific area of the eye; the study demonstrated that when the ultrasound waves are projected as a pattern -- for example, the letter \'C\' -- the rat\'s brain was able to pick up a similar pattern.</p><p>Unlike in humans, researchers are unable to get direct answers about the rat\'s visual experiences during the ultrasound stimulation.</p><p>To answer these questions of what exactly the rat was able to visualize from the ultrasound waves, the team measured visual activity directly from the rat\'s visual brain area known as the visual cortex by attaching a multi-electrode array.</p><p>Based on the visual activities recorded from the brain, researchers found the rat was able to perceive visualizations comparable to the ultrasound stimulation pattern projected to the eye. This work was just published in <em>BME Fronters</em> (Science Partner Journal).</p><p><strong>The Future</strong></p><p>The research is currently funded by a four-year, $2.3 million grant from the National Eye Institute (NEI). The team recently applied for another NEI translational grant to take their studies to the next level.</p><p>Current studies are conducted mostly using rodent models. However, the team plans to test this approach using non-human primate models prior to conducting human clinical trials.</p><p>\"Right now, we are using a transducer placed in front of the rat\'s eyeball to send the ultrasound signals to the retina, but our final goal is to create a wireless lens transducer\" said Dr. Zhou.</p><p>While the team is currently analyzing the capabilities of ultrasound technology for vision study, their future goal is to generate sharper images and install the ultrasound transducer on a wearable contact lens for next generation.</p><p>There is also a pending patent for this novel ultrasound technology that hopes to change the way visual impairment is treated years down the road.</p><p>Video: <a href=\"https://youtu.be/8JMB6hrZDec\">https://youtu.be/8JMB6hrZDec</a></p>','2022-04-12 21:17:02.934715','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Southern California','While there are no successful non-invasive therapeutics currently available for the treatment of vision loss, researchers at have come up with a new idea to address this growing problem. Currently, ophthalmologists use electronic technology to directly stimulate retinal neurons by implanting electrode devices inside the eye, a technique that requires expensive and invasive surgery. A research team is now exploring a non-surgical solution that could restore sight by using another of the five senses: Sound.\n',1,126,'<li>Xuejun Qian, Gengxi Lu, Biju B. Thomas, Runze Li, Xiaoyang Chen, K. Kirk Shung, Mark Humayun, Qifa Zhou. <strong>Noninvasive Ultrasound Retinal Stimulation for Vision Restoration at High Spatiotemporal Resolution</strong>. <em>BME Frontiers</em>, 2022; 2022: 1 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.34133/2022/9829316\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.34133/2022/9829316</a>\n</li>'),(2048,'LED lights developed from rice husks','led-lights-developed-from-rice-husks','2022-04-12 21:17:09.043898',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Milling rice to separate the grain from the husks produces about 100 million tons of rice husk waste globally each year. Scientists searching for a scalable method to fabricate quantum dots have developed a way to recycle rice husks to create the first silicon quantum dot (QD) LED light. Their new method transforms agricultural waste into state-of-the-art light-emitting diodes in a low-cost, environmentally friendly way.</p><p>The research team from the Natural Science Center for Basic Research and Development, Hiroshima University, published their findings on January 28, 2022, in the American Chemical Society journal <em>ACS Sustainable Chemistry &amp; Engineering</em>.</p><p>\"Since typical QDs often involve toxic material, such as cadmium, lead, or other heavy metals, environmental concerns have been frequently deliberated when using nanomaterials. Our proposed process and fabrication method for QDs minimizes these concerns,\" said Ken-ichi Saitow, lead study author and a professor of chemistry at Hiroshima University.</p><p>Since porous silicon (Si) was discovered in the 1950s, scientists have explored its uses in applications in lithium-ion batteries, luminescent materials, biomedical sensors, and drug delivery systems. Non-toxic and found abundantly in nature, Si has photoluminescence properties, stemming from its microscopic (quantum-sized) dot structures that serve as semiconductors.</p><p>Aware of the environmental concerns surrounding the current quantum dots, the researchers set out to find a new method for fabricating quantum dots that has a positive environmental impact. Waste rice husks, it turns out, are an excellent source of high-purity silica (SiO<sub>2</sub>) and value-added Si powder.</p><p>The team used a combination of milling, heat treatments, and chemical etching to process the rice husk silica: First, they milled rice husks and extracted silica (SiO<sub>2</sub>) powders by burning off organic compounds of milled rice husks. Second, they heated the resulting silica powder in an electric furnace to obtain Si powders via a reduction reaction. Third, the product was a purified Si powder that was further reduced to 3 nanometer in size by chemical etching. Finally, its surface was chemically functionalized for high chemical stability and high dispersivity in solvent, with 3 nm crystalline particles to produce the SiQDs that luminesce in the orange-red range with high luminescence efficiency of over 20%.</p><p>\"This is the first research to develop an LED from waste rice husks,\" said Saitow, adding that the non-toxic quality of silicon makes them an attractive alternative to current semiconducting quantum dots available today.</p><p>\"The present method becomes a noble method for developing environmentally friendly quantum dot LEDs from natural products,\" he said.</p><p>The LEDs were assembled as a series of material layers. An indium-tin-oxide (ITO) glass substrate was the LED anode; it is a good conductor of electricity while sufficiently transparent for light emission. Additional layers were spin-coated onto the ITO glass, including the layer of SiQDs. The material was capped with an aluminum film cathode.</p><p>The chemical synthesis method the team developed has allowed them to evaluate the optical and optoelectrical properties of the SiQD light-emitting diode, including the structures, synthesis yields, and properties of the SiO<sub>2</sub> and Si powders and SiQDs.</p><p>\"By synthesizing high-yield SiQDs from rich husks and dispersing them in organic solvents, it is possible that one day these processes could be implemented on a large scale, like other high-yield chemical processes,\" Saitow said.</p><p>The team\'s next steps include developing higher efficiency luminescence in the SiQDs and the LEDs. They will also explore the possibility of producing SiQD LEDs other than the orange-red color they have just created. Looking ahead, the scientists suggest that the method they have developed could be applied to other plants, such as sugar cane bamboo, wheat, barley, or grasses, that contain SiO<sub>2</sub>. These natural products and their wastes might hold the potential for being transformed into non-toxic optoelectronic devices. Ultimately, the scientists would like to see commercialization of this eco-friendly approach to creating luminescent devices from rice husk waste.</p><p>Other members of the research team, also from Hiroshima University, include Honoka Ueda, Shiho Terada, and Taisei Ono.</p><p>The research is funded by Next Generation World-Leading Researchers of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from JSPS, the PRESTO Structure Control and Function program of the Japan Science and Technology Agency, and The Japan Keirin Autorace Foundation (JKA).</p>','2022-04-12 21:17:09.043898','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Hiroshima University','Milling rice to separate the grain from the husks, produces about 100 million tons of rice husk waste globally each year. Scientists searching for a scalable method to fabricate quantum dots have developed a way to recycle rice husks to create the first silicon quantum dot LED light. Their new method transforms agricultural waste into state-of-the-art light-emitting diodes in a low-cost, environmentally friendly way.\n',1,30,'<li>Shiho Terada, Honoka Ueda, Taisei Ono, Ken-ichi Saitow. <strong>Orange–Red Si Quantum Dot LEDs from Recycled Rice Husks</strong>. <em>ACS Sustainable Chemistry &amp; Engineering</em>, 2022; 10 (5): 1765 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.1c04985\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1021/acssuschemeng.1c04985</a>\n</li>'),(2049,'Sunlight’s healing effects help imperiled  green sea turtles with tumors','sunlight’s-healing-effects-help-imperiled--green-sea-turtles-with-tumors','2022-04-12 21:17:22.168515',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A new study by Florida Atlantic University researchers is literally shedding \"light\" on a way to improve the health of endangered green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) prone to a disease called fibropapillomatosis. Affecting about 60 percent of sea turtles in some sub-populations, juveniles are most susceptible to this disease that causes the growth of large debilitating tumors on the skin, eyes and shell.</p><p>Turtles with fibropapillomatosis are treated at rehabilitation facilities where the tumors are surgically removed. Unfortunately, many of them do not survive or the tumors regrow.</p><p>One solution to helping this population of sea turtles could be as simple as sunlight. Many turtle rehabilitation facilities have enclosures that limit sea turtles\' exposure to natural ultraviolet (UV) light. Rays from sun exposure are an important source of vitamin D, which is an essential nutrient in vertebrates that plays many physiological roles. Importantly, sea turtles with fibropapillomatosis show reduced vitamin D levels and variations in blood chemistry parameters.</p><p>For the study, FAU researchers compared vitamin D levels in green sea turtles with and without evident fibropapillomatosis to determine if exposure to sunlight would influence vitamin D levels and other health parameters. They also examined differences between turtles brought in to rehabilitation facilities and healthy wild-caught juvenile green turtles.</p><p>In addition, researchers investigated if higher levels of sun exposure increase vitamin D levels in sea turtles undergoing treatment for fibropapillomatosis compared to turtles receiving less ultraviolet light. Since turtles both with and without visible tumors entered the rehabilitation facility, researchers also checked to see if there was any correlation between sun exposure, vitamin D and tumor regrowth.</p><p>Turtles receiving treatment were housed in tanks exposed to higher or lower levels of sunlight for up to six months. Researchers looked at hematology and blood chemistry parameters and vitamin D, parathyroid hormone (regulates calcium levels in the blood) and ionized calcium levels. Turtles that had tumor removal surgery were monitored for any regrowth.</p><p>Results of the study, published in the journal <em>Animals</em>,revealed that turtles exposed to greater sunlight showed greater increases in plasma vitamin D and a more successful recovery. Vitamin D levels increased over time in turtles in rehabilitation with the most significant increases seen when the turtles were exposed to higher levels of UV light and for longer times. Those turtles kept in the sun tanks experienced less regrowth of tumors compared to those exposed to low UV light conditions. The results suggest that increasing sun exposure in rehabilitation facilities may enhance health and recovery in green sea turtles with fibropapillomatosis.</p><p>Opon intake, tumored turtles had lower plasma vitamin D and ionized calcium levels and higher parathyroid hormone levels when compared to both wild-caught and rehabilitation turtles without evident tumors.</p><p>\"Data from our study suggest that one potential method to better the outcome of sea turtles with this disease is to increase their exposure to UV light during rehabilitation,\" said Sarah L. Milton, Ph.D., senior author, chair and professor, Department of Biological Sciences, FAU Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, and a member of the FAU Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute and FAU Institute for Human Health and Disease Intervention (I-Health). \"Although a cure for this disease has yet to be discovered, we have shown that exposure to higher UV light increases vitamin D in turtles, as it does in other animals including humans. Increased plasma vitamin D levels are then in turn correlated with lower rates of disease. This potential to boost health could therefore contribute to improved recovery. For future studies, we would be interested to see if there are direct links between vitamin D levels and immune function.\"</p><p>Study co-author is Victoria E. Garefino, an FAU graduate of Milton\'s laboratory. This research was funded by Friends of Gumbo Limbo and National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation grants awarded to Milton.</p>','2022-04-12 21:17:22.168515','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Florida Atlantic University','Helping green sea turtles suffering with large debilitating tumors may be a simple as sunlight. Turtles with fibropapillomatosis are treated at rehab facilities where the tumors are surgically removed. Many do not survive or the tumors regrow. Researchers compared vitamin D levels in green sea turtles with and without evident tumors to see if sunlight exposure would influence vitamin D levels and other health parameters. Turtles receiving treatment were housed in tanks exposed to higher or lower levels of sunlight. Results showed that turtles exposed to greater sunlight showed greater increases in plasma vitamin D and a more successful recovery. Turtles kept in the sun tanks also experienced less regrowth of tumors compared to those exposed to low UV light conditions.\n',1,27,'<li>Victoria E. Garefino, Sarah L. Milton. <strong>Influence of Sunlight on Vitamin D and Health Status in Green (Chelonia mydas) Sea Turtles with Fibropapillomatosis</strong>. <em>Animals</em>, 2022; 12 (4): 488 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani12040488\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.3390/ani12040488</a>\n</li>'),(2050,'Sunscreen doesn’t protect as well as it could: Here is what is missing','sunscreen-doesn’t-protect-as-well-as-it-could:-here-is-what-is-missing','2022-04-12 21:44:03.655092',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A key ingredient is missing from all sunscreens and anti-aging creams, and our skin will be far better protected from the damaging effects of the sun once this rich source of natural photoprotection has been added.</p><p>This is the finding of a new study into sun-related skin aging carried out at the UK\'s University of Bath and published in the journal <em>Antioxidants</em>.</p><p>The missing ingredient is a class of antioxidant (a type of stable molecule) commonly found in nature. Experiments have shown that these antioxidant molecules eliminate excess iron in cells, thereby helping cells maintain a healthy level of free radicals (a type of unstable molecule). Free radicals and free iron are strongly linked to skin damage.</p><p>\"By including these potent antioxidants in skin-care products and sunscreen formulations, and therefore trapping free iron*, we can expect to get an unprecedented level of protection from the sun,\" says Dr Charareh Pourzand, who led the research from the Department of Pharmacy &amp; Pharmacology and the Centre for Therapeutic Innovation at the University of Bath.</p><p>Scientists have known for some time that iron deposits promote the appearance of aging, but the latest study highlights the interplay between free iron and free radicals in the skin. As a result of their findings, Dr Pourzand urges skin-care manufacturers to look more closely at opportunities to include iron-trapping extracts in their products.</p><p>A number of iron-trapping natural extracts have already been identified in the Bath lab (these include several classes of botanical, fungal and marine-based compounds, among them extracts from certain vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, bark and flowers), however Dr Pourzand says more research is needed before any of these compounds are fit for commercial purpose.</p><p>\"Though the antioxidants we\'ve identified work well in laboratory conditions, they don\'t necessarily remain stable once they\'ve been added to a cream,\" she says. \"These extracts come from plants, and environmental factors affect their stability and long-term effectiveness -- anything from the season in which they are grown, soil type, latitude and the time of harvest can change the strength by which they can neutralise free radicals as well as work as iron traps.\"</p><p>She adds: \"What is needed now is for the bioactive chemicals in these extracts to be standardised -- once that has happened, they can and should be added to products designed to protect the skin from aging.\"</p><p><strong>Sun exposure and skin aging</strong></p><p>The sunscreens on the market today are designed to either block or absorb UV rays. In so doing, they lower the number of free radicals that are created on the skin -- it is these unstable molecules that cause skin damage and aging, in a process known as oxidative stress. Free radicals cause harm by damaging DNA and other cell components, and this sometimes results in cell death.</p><p>What has not been given consideration in sun-care and anti-aging formulations is the role of iron, both in damaging the skin directly when it interacts with UV radiation and in amplifying the damage caused by free radicals.</p><p>\"This needs to change,\" says Dr Pourzand. \"Formulations need to adapt and improve.\"</p><p>The antioxidant compounds identified at Bath have the ability to protect the skin against both chronological aging (the natural decline in skin texture that comes with age) and sun-mediated aging (known as photoaging).</p><p>Though the body needs iron to function properly, too much (or too little) is harmful or even deadly to our cells. To protect themselves from this danger, our cells have a well-developed system for adjusting excess iron when it builds up, thereby bringing it back to a state of balance (known as homeostasis). In the presence of sunlight, however, this balance is disrupted, leading to skin damage, aging and sometimes cancer.</p><p>Chronological aging also contributes to iron levels falling out of balance, especially in women after the menopause, meaning older people (and particularly older women) are more vulnerable than others to the ravaging effects of the sun.</p><p>The consultancy work delivered by Dr Pourzand for this study was facilitated by Consultancy Services in Research and Innovation Services (RIS) at the University of Bath.</p><p><em>* Free iron is not to be mistaken for bound or stored iron, both of which are essential for the body.</em></p>','2022-04-12 21:44:03.655092','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Bath','A new article finds a strong link between the actions of free radicals and free iron in the skin -- a link that causes skin to age prematurely after exposure to the sun. The researchers have also identified antioxidants that can be added to skin products to mop-up the harmful iron, thereby minimizing sun damage.\n',1,191,'<li>Charareh Pourzand, Andrea Albieri-Borges, Nico N. Raczek. <strong>Shedding a New Light on Skin Aging, Iron- and Redox-Homeostasis and Emerging Natural Antioxidants</strong>. <em>Antioxidants</em>, 2022; 11 (3): 471 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antiox11030471\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.3390/antiox11030471</a>\n</li>'),(2051,'Recognizing an impending stroke','recognizing-an-impending-stroke','2022-04-12 21:44:11.092431',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Subarachnoid hemorrhage is a type of bleeding stroke which can lead to a delayed ischemic stroke after just a few days. Researchers from Charité -- Universitätsmedizin Berlin have shown that massive electrochemical waves in the brain act as a marker announcing an impending ischemic stroke. Electrodiagnostic monitoring of these waves enables clinicians to identify the signs of an impending stroke early, particularly in comatose patients receiving intensive care following a subarachnoid hemorrhage. The researchers\' findings, which have been published in <em>Brain</em>, could serve as the basis for the development of new treatments.</p><p>Subarachnoid hemorrhage is a type of stroke caused by bleeding into the space between the protective membranes surrounding the brain. This type of hemorrhagic stroke represents a neurological emergency, which is why patients with this type of stroke require immediate intensive care. When the brain\'s normal blood supply is disrupted due to an acute blockage rather than a brain bleed, this is called an ischemic stroke. However, an ischemic stroke can also occur as the result of a subarachnoid hemorrhage. More than half of all patients who have had a severe subarachnoid hemorrhage will develop an ischemic stroke within the first two weeks after their brain bleed.</p><p>Charité researchers have identified a biomarker which indicates that a patient is at high risk of an impending stroke post-subarachnoid hemorrhage. \"It is difficult to judge when a new stroke might be developing, especially in patients who are in a coma and hence unable to tell us anything about their health status,\" explains first author Prof. Dr. Jens Dreier of Charité\'s Center for Stroke Research. He continues: \"In our study, we have shown that electrodiagnostic monitoring makes this moment visible. This means that treatment can be started in time, even in comatose patients, before it is too late.\"</p><p>The discovery made by Prof. Dreier and his team was based on a phenomenon known as \'spreading depolarizations\', massive waves of electrochemical energy release caused by the toxic by-products of blood breakdown following hemorrhagic stroke. Affected areas of the brain require large amounts of energy in order to restore normal conditions. In a healthy brain, very brief periods of depolarization (a change in the membrane potential) of nerve cells are normal and linked to blood supply: the brain can widen blood vessels as required, thereby balancing increased energy needs with an increase in blood flow. After a subarachnoid hemorrhage, however, pathologically massive and long-lasting spreading depolarizations can disrupt signaling cascades between nerve cells and blood vessels, so that the depolarization of nerve cells triggers extreme blood vessel constriction. This in turn deprives the nerve cells of energy, rendering them incapable of restoring normal electrochemical gradients. If depolarization persists for too long, these nerve cells will begin to die off.</p><p>\"One scientific insight from the last few years has been crucial: namely, that the depolarization wave remains reversible up to a certain point in time,\" emphasizes Prof. Dreier. He adds: \"This means that cells can recover fully if circulation, and consequently oxygen supply, is restored in time.\"</p><p>This was the starting point of the current clinical study, which was conducted across five different university hospitals. In order to take accurate measurements of spreading depolarizations, the researchers employed electrocorticography, a procedure used to measure brain activity in neurological intensive care patients. To enable these types of measurements, patients admitted with subarachnoid hemorrhage had electrodes implanted under the dura mater (the brain\'s tough outer membrane). The researchers also used imaging technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT), analyzing approximately 1,000 brain scans from 180 patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage. The largest clinical study on spreading depolarizations to date revealed that the average patient loses 46 milliliters of brain tissue during the early phase after their brain bleed, i.e., by the time they reach hospital. The average patient then loses a further 36 milliliters of brain tissue during the first two weeks after their hemorrhage, i.e., while in intensive care.</p><p>\"These 36 milliliters of brain tissue are in effect salvageable,\" explains Prof. Dreier. He continues: \"Electrodiagnostic monitoring enables us to identify developing strokes at a stage in time when the process can still be reversed and modified. Spreading depolarizations can therefore serve as a biomarker in real time. To an extent, this replaces an exchange with the patient who is unable to express their symptoms and impairments as a result of their being unconscious. This enables us to initiate early and appropriate treatment measures in patients found to be at risk of further stroke. Similarly, it prevents additional medicine being given to individuals found not to be at risk of further stroke. Potential side effects can thus be avoided.\"</p><p>This approach follows the principles of precision medicine, which aims to tailor treatments to the needs of the individual patient. The researchers plan to test spreading depolarization monitoring as an early warning system for use in routine clinical practice, where they hope it will help to improve treatment options for people with stroke. Artificial intelligence-based methods are likely to play a major role in this regard. The automated analysis of electrodiagnostic data will be necessary to ensure intensive care physicians are notified in real time when an unconscious patient\'s brain tissue is at risk of further damage.</p>','2022-04-12 21:44:11.092431','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin','Subarachnoid hemorrhage is a type of bleeding stroke which can lead to a delayed ischemic stroke after just a few days. Researchers have shown that massive electrochemical waves in the brain act as a marker announcing an impending ischemic stroke. Electrodiagnostic monitoring of these waves enables clinicians to identify the signs of an impending stroke early, particularly in comatose patients receiving intensive care following a subarachnoid hemorrhage.\n',1,27,'<li>Jens P. Dreier, Maren K. L. Winkler, Sebastian Major, Viktor Horst, Svetlana Lublinsky, Vasilis Kola, Coline L. Lemale, Eun-Jeung Kang, Anna Maslarova, Irmak Salur, Janos Lückl, Johannes Platz, Devi Jorks, Ana I. Oliveira-Ferreira, Karl Schoknecht, Clemens Reiffurth, Denny Milakara, Dirk Wiesenthal, Nils Hecht, Nora F. Dengler, Agustin Liotta, Stefan Wolf, Christina M. Kowoll, André P. Schulte, Edgar Santos, Erdem Güresir, Andreas W. Unterberg, Asita Sarrafzadeh, Oliver W. Sakowitz, Hartmut Vatter, Michael Reiner, Gerrit Brinker, Christian Dohmen, Ilan Shelef, Georg Bohner, Michael Scheel, Peter Vajkoczy, Jed A. Hartings, Alon Friedman, Peter Martus, Johannes Woitzik. <strong>Spreading depolarizations in ischaemia after subarachnoid haemorrhage, a diagnostic phase III study</strong>. <em>Brain</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/brain/awab457\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1093/brain/awab457</a>\n</li>'),(2052,'Immunologists unravel battle plans of deadly coronaviruses','immunologists-unravel-battle-plans-of-deadly-coronaviruses','2022-04-12 21:44:12.842449',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Immunologists from Trinity College Dublin, who have worked on coronaviruses for the past decade, have just unravelled new secrets behind the viruses\' battle plans -- providing new insights into how these deadly viruses sometimes win the war against human immune systems.</p><p>The immunologists, led by Dr Nigel Stevenson, Assistant Professor in Viral Immunology at Trinity, have discovered how SARS and MERS proteins block the induction of antiviral proteins, which prevents us from mounting a strong innate immune response against infection.</p><p>The coronaviruses SARS and MERS emerged in 2002 and 2012, respectively. Both had higher fatality rates than COVID-19 (around 10% and 40%, respectively), but both infected far fewer people (around 10,000 and 3,000, respectively).</p><p>Although different, these two coronaviruses bear many similarities to SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19), and thus drawing up blueprints of their battle plans provides insights with the potential to provide new therapeutic options for treating COVID-19 and future deadly coronaviruses that have yet to emerge.</p><p>Dr Stevenson and his team discovered that SARS and MERS viruses have proteins that essentially throw a spanner in the works of the Interferon antiviral pathway, which -- under normal circumstances -- activates a cascade of responses in human cells, to produce hundreds of antiviral proteins that block viral replication.</p><p>Dr Nigel Stevenson, Head of the Viral Immunology team in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology, is based in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI). He is the senior author of a 2022 research article, which has just been published in the Journal, <em>Viruses</em>. He said:</p><p>\"Over time, humans have evolved to fight viral infections by producing molecules called Interferons. When a virus is encountered Interferons are produced, which, in turn, activates an antiviral pathway in our cells that is at the heart of our immediate immune response. The pathway produces specific proteins that switch hundreds of our anti-viral genes on. These genes then produce lots of different antiviral proteins that attack -- and in most cases -- kill the virus. In doing so, Interferons \'interfere\' with a virus\' life cycle.\"</p><p>\"However, viruses have also evolved over time to suppress and avoid our immune system responses. And our research aims to understand how viruses suppress the response to Interferons. Our current research has discovered that SARS and MERS prevent key proteins from being activated and entering the nucleus in our cells. The nucleus is where our DNA is stored and where genes are switched on, to generate a proper immune response.</p><p>\"The hope is that if we can design new drugs to inhibit the ability of coronaviruses to suppress the Interferon pathway, we should be able to treat people far more effectively. And given the similarity in coronaviruses and their modes of action, such a drug would likely prove effective against all the deadly coronaviruses.\"</p><p>Dr Stevenson added:</p><p>\"Therapeutic Interferon is a drug used to fight certain infections, but it has never proved very effective against coronaviruses. Now we think we know why -- if the Interferon pathway is essentially disabled, it can\'t stimulate a response.</p><p>\"If we could restore the natural ability of our immune systems to fight viral infection and prevent viral replication, we could treat infected people with much greater success. In addition, if we could develop a therapeutic that stop viruses from destroying the Interferon pathway, it would in theory open the door to directly attacking the virus.\"</p><p>First author on the research article is Yamei Zhang, who previously spent research time with Dr Stevenson\'s collaborators in Hong Kong University. She and Dr Stevenson were working on this research before SARS-CoV-2 emerged and the COVID-19 pandemic developed.</p><p>The work was funded by Science Foundation Ireland and the China Scholarship Council. A copy of the journal article is available on request.</p>','2022-04-12 21:44:12.842449','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Trinity College Dublin','Researchers have unraveled new secrets behind coronaviruses\' battle plans -- providing new insights into how these deadly viruses sometimes win the war against human immune systems. The immunologists have discovered how SARS and MERS proteins block the induction of antiviral proteins, which prevents us from mounting a strong innate immune response against infection.\n',1,21,'<li>Yamei Zhang, Siobhan Gargan, Fiona M. Roche, Matthew Frieman, Nigel J. Stevenson. <strong>Inhibition of the IFN-α JAK/STAT Pathway by MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-1 Proteins in Human Epithelial Cells</strong>. <em>Viruses</em>, 2022; 14 (4): 667 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v14040667\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.3390/v14040667</a>\n</li>'),(2053,'Potential to reduce reliance on non-renewable fertilizers in agriculture','potential-to-reduce-reliance-on-non-renewable-fertilizers-in-agriculture','2022-04-12 21:44:35.027232',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">An enzyme that can help release phosphorus from its organic forms has been identified in a study from the University of Sheffield\'s Institute for Sustainable Food, published in leading science journal <em>PNAS</em>.</p><p>The enzyme has the potential to help reduce the consumption of phosphate chemical fertilisers which global food production systems rely on, but are produced by the mining of non-renewable and increasingly expensive inorganic sources of rock phosphate.</p><p>All organisms on Earth, plants and animals, require phosphorus for healthy growth and development, but the continued use of the limited stocks of non-renewable phosphorus chemical fertilisers in agriculture threatens crop yields and the sustainability of our global food production systems. Agriculture is the biggest consumer of non-renewable phosphorus, so its limited supply has important implications for global food security, biodiversity and climate regulation.</p><p>The most simple form of phosphorus in use in fertilisers is non-renewable inorganic phosphate, as unfortunately the availability of organic phosphate nutrients in the environment is often low enough to limit natural plant and algae growth.</p><p>In the ocean and soil, most of the total phosphorus exists in complex organic forms, which requires enzymes, commonly known as phosphatases, to release the phosphate so that plants and algae can use it as a nutrient.</p><p>Researchers at the University\'s Institute for Sustainable Food have identified a unique bacterial phosphatase abundant in the environment called PafA, that can efficiently release the phosphate used in fertilisers from its organic forms.</p><p>The study used a Flavobacterium model to look at the PafA function in vivo and showed it can rapidly mineralise naturally occurring organic phosphate independently of phosphate level, a process which is was found to be inhibited with other common enzymes such as PhoX and PhoA phosphatases, especially if there are already residual levels of phosphate around.</p><p>Dr Ian Lidbury, from the University of Sheffield\'s Institute for Sustainable Food and Arthur Willis Environmental Research Centre, said: \"The accumulation of phosphate can inhibit enzyme activity in the most common phosphatases, but PafA is unique in that its function does not suffer when phosphate accumulates.</p><p>\"As there is a high occurrence and diversity of PafA in the environment, both on land and aquatic environments, this makes it a valuable overlooked resource for finding ways to help plants and animals more efficiently capture essential nutrients, and will be crucial to help us reducing our reliance on -- and the damage caused by rapidly using up -- the world\'s limited stocks of non-renewable chemical phosphorus fertilisers.</p><p>\"Our further research will investigate how PafA functions, as Flavobacterium forms appear to be particularly active compared to others. So understanding this is crucial for us to be able to engineer optimised enzymes for use in agriculture.\"</p><p>The team are now working to investigate what makes certain forms of PafA more active than others, with the goal of designing an enzyme that can be used to promote sustainable agriculture, through providing more readily available organic sources of phosphorus for plants, with the potential to introduce it into animal feeds.</p>','2022-04-12 21:44:35.027232','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Sheffield','An enzyme that can help release phosphorus from its organic forms has been identified.\n',1,70,'<li>Ian D.E.A. Lidbury, David J. Scanlan, Andrew R. J. Murphy, Joseph A. Christie-Oleza, Maria M. Aguilo-Ferretjans, Andrew Hitchcock, Tim J. Daniell. <strong>A widely distributed phosphate-insensitive phosphatase presents a route for rapid organophosphorus remineralization in the biosphere</strong>. <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>, 2022; 119 (5) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2118122119\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1073/pnas.2118122119</a>\n</li>'),(2054,'Study finds top reviews, not average ratings, sway consumer decision-making','study-finds-top-reviews,-not-average-ratings,-sway-consumer-decision-making','2022-04-12 21:44:37.875252',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">When it comes to online shopping habits, the collective wisdom dictates that consumers gravitate toward the highest-rated products. The difference between a 4-star average rating and a 4.5-star average rating could play a huge role when buyers are deciding to hit the \"Add to Cart\" button.</p><p>But new research shows that the half-star chasm may not be all that important.</p><p>It turns out top reviews carry more sway in a customer\'s final buying decisions when they are comparing products. The research debunks a widely held notion that serious online consumers buy products with a higher rating.</p><p>\"It\'s surprising because as a researcher, a business, or a consumer, we typically believe that when we go to Amazon, the most important piece of information is the average rating,\" said researcher Dezhi (Denny) Yin, who co-authored the study.</p><p>Yin said since the starred average rating is an aggregate of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of online reviews, it is the most comprehensive window into a product\'s quality.</p><p>\"And what we found was that when they read some reviews, just a few reviews can overturn the impact of average ratings,\" said Yin, an associate professor in the School of Information Systems and Management in the Muma College of Business at the University of South Florida.</p><p>Using a clever \"trade-off\" design, the research team conducted three studies to disentangle the effects of online ratings and top reviews on consumer decision-making.</p><p>The first study was based on real-world daily data of 538 apps ranked in the top 100 from Apple\'s App Store for two months. The apps covered 21 categories, such as games, business, finance, and news.</p><p>In the two other experiments, undergraduate students were asked to make a purchase decision between two digital camera options whose \"stars\" from average ratings and top reviews did not align with each other. The studies not only provided converging evidence for the swaying effect of top reviews but also pointed to a possible source of this effect.</p><p><strong>Review details matter</strong></p><p>\"It\'s the text of the top reviews that made a difference,\" Yin said. \"This swaying effect only happened for the text reviews. Without text, people are not swayed. It\'s the concrete details that are driving this impact.\"</p><p>Yin explained that the research is not saying that average ratings don\'t matter. If a product has a low average rating, consumers will not consider the product, much less read the product reviews.</p><p>But in the cases where buyers are comparing different products and reading their reviews, a few top reviews can easily sway their purchase decisions, he said, adding that the study findings are not limited to app or product reviews.</p><p><strong>The ratings game</strong></p><p>What are the takeaways for online retailers?</p><p>Yin recommends retailers spend less effort on writing or soliciting fake reviews to try to bump up their average star rating.</p><p>\"Businesses should not spend a lot of time gaming the rating system. That effort is actually not very meaningful or effective, based on our findings,\" Yin said. \"Our findings suggest that as long as your average ratings were fine, what matters is the top reviews.\"</p><p>In addition, retailers would be smart to respond to any negative top reviews, because those are the reviews that most consumers are likely to read. Retailers might counter the swaying effects of such reviews by, for example, explaining that the criticism was an isolated case or that the concern has been resolved, he said.</p><p>Also, researchers also recommend online review platforms, such as Yelp and Amazon, could benefit consumers by designing a layout that spotlights individual reviews with less emphasis on average ratings.</p><p>Aside from Yin, the article\'s co-authors include Zhanfei Lei, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Saby Mitra, University of Florida; and Han Zhang, Georgia Institute of Technology.</p>','2022-04-12 21:44:37.875252','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of South Florida (USF Innovation)','Collective wisdom dictates that online shoppers gravitate toward the highest-rated products. But new research debunks this and shows top reviews carry more sway in a customer\'s final buying decisions when they are comparing products.\n',1,27,'<li>Zhanfei Lei, Dezhi Yin, Sabyasachi Mitra, Han Zhang. <strong>Swayed by the reviews: Disentangling the effects of average ratings and individual reviews in online word‐of‐mouth</strong>. <em>Production and Operations Management</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/poms.13695\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1111/poms.13695</a>\n</li>'),(2055,'What is causing the rise in black lung disease?','what-is-causing-the-rise-in-black-lung-disease?','2022-04-12 21:44:44.031388',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Silica exposure is a driving force behind rising rates of coal workers\' pneumoconiosis, according to a new study published by occupational health experts at the University of Illinois Chicago and their collaborators.</p><p>The study is the first to compare the pathology and mineralogy of the disease, which is commonly called black lung disease, across generations. It is also the first to offer scientific evidence explaining why progressive massive fibrosis, the most severe form of black lung disease, is occurring more frequently and among younger coal workers in West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky.</p><p>Before 2005, when the increase was first reported, the incidence of black lung disease had been on the decline since the 70s, when modern coal dust controls were put in place. Subsequent investigations have reported that black lung cases have tripled and that tenured miners in central Appalachia, the epicenter of the disease, have experienced a tenfold increase in severe black lung disease.</p><p>\"We\'ve known that silica is highly toxic and exposure contributes to coal workers\' pneumoconiosis, but we haven\'t known why coal workers were suddenly experiencing more disease and more severe forms of it. Regulations have remained in place, minerals in the Earth have not changed, and there is no evidence suggesting people have become more vulnerable to coal dust, so the rise in cases among young workers that started in the late 90s was baffling,\" said Dr. Robert Cohen, clinical professor of environmental and occupational health sciences and director of the Mining Education and Research Center at UIC.</p><p>To better understand this phenomenon, Cohen and his collaborators collected lung tissue samples from coal miners with severe black lung disease. They compared the samples from miners who were born between 1910 and 1930 with those from miners who were born in or after 1930, historical and \"contemporary\" coal miners respectively.</p><p>The researchers looked at the samples\' pathology -- the physical characteristics of the diseased lungs. Tissues that had more than 75% silicotic nodules, which are round with whirls of pinkish scar tissue, were classified as having silica-type disease; tissues with fewer silicotic nodules and a greater number of grey or black-pigmented nodules were classified as coal-type (less than 25%) or mixed-type (25%-75%). They also looked for other lesions, like mineral dust-related alveolar proteinosis, which presents as fluid-like material on lung tissue and is caused by silica exposure.</p><p>Advanced analytic techniques like scanning electron microscopy and X-ray spectroscopy were used to measure the chemistry, crystal structure and physical properties of the mineral particles in the samples.</p><p>Cohen and his team found a clear link between silica exposure and severe black lung disease in contemporary miners:</p><p>\"These findings provide the first direct evidence that silica is a causative agent behind the increasing incidence of progressive massive fibrosis -- severe black lung disease. This is critical information that can be used to determine health-protective permissible exposure limits for coal miners,\" Cohen said.</p><p>He attributes silica-driven resurgence as likely due to changes in mining technology like the mechanized coal extraction devices introduced in the U.S. in the 1950s, when miners born in or after 1930 would have begun their careers. \"Silica is a mineral found in rock and technology that allows for more mining below and above the coal seam, which is profitable, means more cutting through rock and more silica exposure,\" he said.</p><p>\"Our findings underscore the importance of controlling workplace silica exposure to prevent the disabling and untreatable adverse health effects afflicting U.S. coal miners,\" Cohen and his co-authors write.</p><p>In 2019, the Mine Safety and Health Administration initiated a request for information to inform its silica rules, but the standard established in 1969 remains in effect. The rule permits 100 micrograms per cubic centimeter for silica exposure. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which sets occupational health standards for nearly all other industries, allows 50 micrograms per cubic centimeter.</p><p>The researchers report their findings in the <em>Annals of the American Thoracic Society a</em>rticle, \"Pathology and Mineralogy Demonstrate Respirable Crystalline Silica is a Major Cause of Severe Pneumoconiosis in US Coal Miners.\"</p><p>Co-authors of the study are Dr. Leonard Go, Kirsten Almberg and Cayla Iwaniuk of UIC.</p><p>Collaborating institutions include National Jewish Health and the University of Colorado, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the U.S. Geological Survey, Virginia Tech, West Virginia University, State University of New York, the University of Calgary and the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.</p><p>Cecile Rose, Lauren Zell-Baran, Emily Sarver, Heather Lowers, Sidney Clingerman, Diana Richardson, Dr. Jerrold Abraham, Dr. Carlyne Cool, Dr. Angela Franko, Ann Hubbs, Dr. Jill Murray, Marlene Orandle, Soma Sanyal, Naseema Vorajee, Dr. Edward Petsonk, Dr. Rafia Zulfikar and Dr. Francis Green are co-authors from partner institutions.</p><p>The research was funded by the Alpha Foundation for the Improvement of Mining Safety and Health.</p>','2022-04-12 21:44:44.031388','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Illinois Chicago','Silica exposure is a driving force behind rising rates of coal workers\' pneumoconiosis, according to a new study that compared the pathology and mineralogy of the disease across generations. The study offers scientific evidence explaining why progressive massive fibrosis, the most severe form of black lung disease, is occurring more frequently and among younger coal workers in West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky.\n',1,211,'<li>Robert A Cohen, Cecile S Rose, Leonard H. T. Go, Lauren M Zell-Baran, Kirsten S Almberg, Emily A Sarver, Heather A Lowers, Cayla Iwaniuk, Sidney M Clingerman, Diana L Richardson, Jerrold L Abraham, Carlyne D Cool, Angela D Franko, Ann F Hubbs, Jill Murray, Marlene S Orandle, Soma Sanyal, Naseema I Vorajee, Edward L Petsonk, Rafia Zulfikar, Francis H. Y. Green. <strong>Pathology and Mineralogy Demonstrate Respirable Crystalline Silica is a Major Cause of Severe Pneumoconiosis in US Coal Miners</strong>. <em>Annals of the American Thoracic Society</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1513/AnnalsATS.202109-1064OC\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1513/AnnalsATS.202109-1064OC</a>\n</li>'),(2056,'COVID-19 household transmission is high, with children being a significant source of spread, study finds','covid-19-household-transmission-is-high,-with-children-being-a-significant-source-of-spread,-study-finds','2022-04-12 21:44:46.875132',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A study released today indicates that SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) spreads extensively in households, with children being a significant source of that spread. Approximately 50% of household members were infected from the first-infected individual during the study period. Although kids were less likely to spread the virus compared to adults, children and adults were equally likely to become infected from the first-infected individual.</p><p>The antibody surveillance study \"Household transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from unvaccinated asymptomatic and symptomatic household members with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection\" published in <em>CMAJ Open (Canadian Medical Association Journal) </em>included 695 participants from 180 households in Ottawa between September 2020 and March 2021. The study included households with at least one member having had a confirmed COVID-19 infection, and each participating household enrolled had at least one child within their household.</p><p>\"Our study was conducted when we were dealing with a less transmissible virus and pandemic restrictions were strongly in place, and we still had a 50% transmission rate within households. Flash forward to where we are today with an extremely transmissible variant of COVID-19 and the majority of pandemic restrictions lifted; it\'s safe to say transmission rates will be higher even though we have a high vaccination rate amongst those who are eligible,\" said Dr. Maala Bhatt, the study\'s lead author and Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Faculty of Medicine.</p><p>\"I know many want to \'live with COVID\' and abandon the layers of protection that were previously mandated, but it\'s important to be aware of the high transmissibility of this virus in closed, indoor settings, such as schools. Our most vulnerable and our youngest children who are not yet able to be vaccinated are still at risk for COVID infection.\"</p><p>The level of COVID-19 in Eastern Ontario is on the rise. The COVID-19 wastewater viral signal in Ottawa is at record levels. In addition, test per cent positivity across the region is high, according to regional public health units. In recent weeks, the number of COVID-19 positive admissions to CHEO has been approaching the levels seen in January and early February. Three-quarters of all children admitted to CHEO with COVID-19 have come during the Omicron wave. Since the beginning of January one in three of the roughly 4,900 monthly visits to the Emergency Department were for symptoms associated with COVID-19.</p><p>The study hypothesized that children would act as \"an even greater source of spread within households with the emergence of more infectious variants.\" Children also have \"considerable potential to spread\" in settings such as school and daycare, where they congregate indoors for long periods, especially now when masking is not required in many jurisdictions.</p><p>\"While we\'re lucky hospitals aren\'t currently overloaded, emergency departments are and positivity rates are on the rise, even amongst children,\" said Dr. Bhatt, pediatric emergency physician and Director of Emergency Medicine Research at CHEO and an Investigator at the CHEO Research Institute.</p><p>\"We continue to learn more about COVID-19 and its potential long-term health impacts, and we still aren\'t clear about how long immunity lasts; these are all things researchers continue to study. As significant COVID-19 transmission continues within households and throughout the community, it\'s important to continue doing what you can to keep yourself and those around you safe -- mask while indoors, wash your hands, get vaccinated with all the doses you are eligible for, stay home if you\'re sick, and limit close contacts.\"</p><p>The Ottawa families who participated were integral to this study, as well as the Langlois Laboratory at the University of Ottawa, led by Dr. Marc-André Langlois, Executive Director of CoVaar-Net. Funding for this study came from the Ontario COVID-19 Rapid Research Fund, PSI Foundation and Children\'s Hospital Academic Medical Organization (CHAMO) Innovation Fund.</p>','2022-04-12 21:44:46.875132','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Ottawa','A study indicates that SARS-CoV-2 spreads extensively in households, with children being a significant source of that spread. Approximately 50 percent of household members were infected from the first-infected individual during the study period. Although kids were less likely to spread the virus compared to adults, children and adults were equally likely to become infected from the first-infected individual.\n',1,88,'<li>Maala Bhatt, Amy C. Plint, Ken Tang, Richard Malley, Anne Pham Huy, Candice McGahern, Jennifer Dawson, Martin Pelchat, Lauren Dawson, Terry Varshney, Corey Arnold, Yannick Galipeau, Michael Austin, Nisha Thampi, Fuad Alnaji, Marc-André Langlois, Roger L. Zemek. <strong>Household transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from unvaccinated asymptomatic and symptomatic household members with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection: an antibody-surveillance study</strong>. <em>CMAJ Open</em>, 2022; 10 (2): E357 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.9778/cmajo.20220026\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.9778/cmajo.20220026</a>\n</li>'),(2057,'Cell-derived therapy may help repair abnormal heart rhythm','cell-derived-therapy-may-help-repair-abnormal-heart-rhythm','2022-04-12 21:44:50.312498',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Vesicles secreted from human heart cells may repair damaged tissue and prevent lethal heart rhythm disorders, according to a new study from investigators in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai.</p><p>The research, published in the <em>European Heart Journal</em>, could lead to a new way to treat a heart rhythm problem called ventricular arrhythmia -- a top cause of sudden cardiac death. In an accompanying editorial, experts describe the research as \"poised to turn this entire field on its head.\"</p><p><strong>Repairing a Damaged Heart</strong></p><p>Ventricular arrhythmias can occur after a heart attack damages tissue, causing chaotic electrical patterns in the heart\'s lower chambers. The heart ends up beating so rapidly that it cannot support the circulation, leading to a lack of blood flow and, if untreated, death.</p><p>Current treatment options for ventricular arrhythmias caused by heart attacks are far from ideal. These include medications with major side effects, implanted devices to provide an internal shock, and a procedure called radiofrequency ablation in which parts of the heart are purposely destroyed to interrupt disruptive electrical signals. Recurrence rates are, unfortunately, high for all of these.</p><p>\"Ablation is a counterintuitive approach because you are destroying heart muscle in an already weakened heart,\" said Eugenio Cingolani, MD, director of the Cardiogenetics-Familial Arrhythmia Program at the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai, and senior author of the study. \"We asked ourselves, \'What if instead of destroying damaged tissue, we tried to repair it?\'\"</p><p>With that in mind, the team sought to try a different approach in laboratory pigs that experienced a heart attack. They injected some of the laboratory pigs with tiny, balloon-like vesicles, called exosomes, produced by cardiosphere-derived cells (CDCs), which are progenitor cells derived from human heart tissue. Exosomes are hardy particles containing molecules and the molecular instructions to make various proteins, thus they are easier to handle and transfer than the parent cells, or CDCs.</p><p>CDCs were first developed and characterized by Eduardo Marbán, MD, PhD, executive director of the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai and the Mark S. Siegel Family Foundation Distinguished Professor. They have been used in multiple clinical trials for a variety of diseases, most recently Duchenne muscular dystrophy.</p><p>One group of pigs received an injection of CDC-derived exosomes in their hearts and the other a placebo.</p><p>\"The exosomes reduced the amount of scar tissue formed in the injured regions of the heart, normalizing the rhythm without weakening the heart,\" said Dr. Marbán, who is a co-author on the study.</p><p>The animals were evaluated by MRI and tests to assess electrical stability of the heart. Four to six weeks after injection, the laboratory pigs that had received the exosome therapy showed markedly improved heart rhythms and less scarring in their hearts.</p><p><strong>A Novel Therapy</strong></p><p>In an editorial published in the same issue of the <em>European Heart Journal</em>,Marine Cacheux, PhD, and Fadi G. Akar, PhD, both of Yale University, summarize the pros and cons of various experimental gene- and cell-based approaches being studied for cardiac arrhythmias. Cedars-Sinai investigators \"appear to have successfully combined the best features of cell and gene therapies to address a major unmet clinical need,\" according to Cacheux and Akar. The authors note the approach used by Cedars-Sinai is novel in how it seeks to repair scarring in the heart, and describe the study as \"a paradigm-shifting body of work.\"</p><p>The investigators plan additional studies.</p><p>\"More studies are needed to to know if the benefits observed in this study persist over a longer period of time,\" said James F. Dawkins, DVM, a research scientist at Cedars-Sinai and first author of the study, \"however, these preliminary results suggest the possibility for a nondestructive alternative to treating ventricular arrhythmias.\"</p><p><em>Funding: This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health under award numbers 1K01HL133510-01A1, R01HL135866 and R01HL14750</em></p>','2022-04-12 21:44:50.312498','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Cedars-Sinai Medical Center','Vesicles secreted from human heart cells may repair damaged tissue and prevent lethal heart rhythm disorders, according to a new study.\n',1,150,'<li>James F. Dawkins, Ashkan Ehdaie, Russell Rogers, Daniel Soetkamp, Jackelyn Valle, Kevin Holm, Lizbeth Sanchez, Ileana Tremmel, Asma Nawaz, Michael Shehata, Xunzhang Wang, Adityo Prakosa, Joseph Yu, Jennifer E. Van Eyk, Natalia Trayanova, Eduardo Marbán, Eugenio Cingolani. <strong>Biological substrate modification suppresses ventricular arrhythmias in a porcine model of chronic ischaemic cardiomyopathy</strong>. <em>European Heart Journal</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehac042\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1093/eurheartj/ehac042</a>\n</li>'),(2058,'Research pioneers new frontiers in plant-based food science','research-pioneers-new-frontiers-in-plant-based-food-science','2022-04-12 21:44:58.234197',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Plant-based meat surrogates have been the rage for some time. \"Impossible\" has become a buzzword to tout everything from vegetarian burgers at fast food chains to meatless alternatives in grocery store aisles. Indeed, modern methods of biotechnology, food technology, and process engineering can yield high optical similarities and targeted molecular-sensory methods that can largely approximate appearance, taste, and smell.</p><p>On a molecular scale, however, plant-based meat appears completely different from the food it tries to mimic, which is noticeable in various ways.</p><p>In <em>Physics of Fluids</em>, by AIP Publishing, scientists from Germany -- a country that produces more than 1,200 types of sausages -- investigate the molecular function and effects of vegetable proteins of different origins to identify sensory weak points in plant-based meat substitutes.</p><p>\"We use direct comparisons of meat-based, vegetarian with egg white, and pure vegan versions to show the differences in bite, chewing, mouthfeel, bolus formation, and associated enjoyment characteristics of the sausages,\" said co-author Thomas A. Vilgis, from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research.</p><p>The researchers said muscle proteins emulsify fats and oils in a very different way than plant proteins do while lending to a different biting behavior in the mouth.</p><p>\"The \'crunch\' or \'crack\' of meat sausages is inevitably different than that of vegan sausages, simply because the molecular properties of the proteins are markedly different,\" said Vilgis.</p><p>In addition to tensile experiments, Vilgis and his colleagues employed rheology and tribology in molecular models, bringing greater insight than pure sensory analyses to examine meat sausages and their vegetarian surrogates.</p><p>\"We\'re looking much deeper than what is usually done in food technology, by taking into account the molecular properties of ingredients as much as possible,\" Vilgis said.</p><p>\"We are taking a closer look at the proteins as well as the sequence of amino acids, which we understand as a \'code\' from which we can read certain properties to better understand the behavior of the sausages in the mouth when they are consumed. Thus, fundamental differences in the molecular structure and mouthfeel become immediately apparent.\"</p><p>Building on the authors\' previous research of soft matter theory and theoretical polymer physics, the study represents an entirely new approach to experimental food science.</p><p>\"We\'re working directly at the interface between basic science and technological application,\" said Vilgis. \"With these methods, it is possible to make predictions in how the physical properties of an alternative sausage can be improved -- and make targeted developments.\"</p>','2022-04-12 21:44:58.234197','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American Institute of Physics','Modern methods of creating plant-based meat can yield high optical similarities and targeted molecular-sensory methods, but on a molecular scale, it appears completely different from the food it tries to mimic. Scientists investigate the molecular function and effects of vegetable proteins of different origins to identify sensory weak points in plant-based substitutes, employing rheology and tribology and bringing greater insight than pure sensory analyses. They said muscle proteins emulsify fats and oils in a very different way while lending to a different biting behavior.\n',1,27,'<li>Marta Ghebremedhin, Mathias Baechle, Thomas A. Vilgis. <strong>Meat-, vegetarian-, and vegan sausages: Comparison of mechanics, friction, and structure</strong>. <em>Physics of Fluids</em>, 2022; 34 (4): 047112 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0083730\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1063/5.0083730</a>\n</li>'),(2059,'Poverty, crime linked to differences in newborns\' brains','poverty,-crime-linked-to-differences-in-newborns\'-brains','2022-04-12 21:45:03.687215',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Poverty and crime can have devastating effects on a child\'s health. But a new study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that some environmental factors influence the structure and function of young brains even before babies make their entrances into the world.</p><p>A study published online April 12 in the journal <em>JAMA Network Open</em> found that MRI scans performed on healthy newborns while they slept indicated that babies of mothers facing social disadvantages such as poverty tended to be born with smaller brains than babies whose mothers had higher household incomes.</p><p>MRI scans of full-term newborns born to mothers living in poverty revealed smaller volumes across the entire brain -- including the cortical gray matter, subcortical gray matter and white matter -- than found in the brains of babies whose mothers had higher household incomes. The brain scans, which were conducted only a few days to weeks after birth, also showed evidence of less folding of the brain among infants born to mothers living in poverty. Fewer and shallower folds typically signify brain immaturity. The healthy human brain folds as it grows and develops, providing the cerebral cortex with a larger functional surface area.</p><p>A second study of data from the same sample of 399 mothers and their babies -- this one published online April 12 in the journal <em>Biological Psychiatry</em> -- reports that pregnant mothers from neighborhoods with high crime rates gave birth to infants whose brains functioned differently during their first weeks of life than babies born to mothers living in safer neighborhoods. Functional MRI scans of babies whose mothers were exposed to crime displayed weaker connections between brain structures that process emotions and structures that help regulate and control those emotions. Maternal stress is believed to be one of the reasons for the weaker connections in the babies\' brains.</p><p>\"These studies demonstrate that a mother\'s experiences during pregnancy can have a major impact on her infant\'s brain development,\" said Christopher D. Smyser, MD, one of the principal investigators. \"Like that old song about how the \'knee bone is connected to the shin bone,\' there\'s a saying about the brain that \'areas that fire together wire together.\' We\'re analyzing how brain regions develop and form early functional networks because how those structures develop and work together may have a major impact on long-term development and behavior.\"</p><p>Babies in the study were born from 2017 through 2020, before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Smyser, a professor of neurology, of pediatrics and of radiology, said that to successfully scan newborns during the first few weeks of life, babies are fed when they arrive for scans because they tend to fall asleep after eating. They are then snuggly swaddled into blankets and a device that helps keep them comfortable and still. The brain scans take place while they sleep.</p><p>In the study involving the effects of poverty, the researchers focused on 280 mothers and their newborns. First author Regina L. Triplett, MD, a postdoctoral fellow in neurology, had expected to find that maternal poverty -- referred to in the paper as social disadvantage -- could affect the babies\' developing brains. But she also expected to see effects from psychosocial stress, which includes measures of adverse life experiences as well as measures of stress and depression.</p><p>\"Social disadvantage affected the brain across many of its structures, but there were not significant effects that were related to psychosocial stress,\" Triplett said. \"Our concern is that as babies begin life with these smaller brain structures, their brains may not develop in as healthy a way as the brains of babies whose mothers lived in higher income households.\"</p><p>In the second study, which implicated living in high-crime neighborhoods as a factor in weaker functional connections in the brains of newborns, first author Rebecca G. Brady, a graduate student in the university\'s Medical Scientist Training Program, found that unlike the effects of poverty, the effects of exposure to crime were focused on particular areas of the babies\' brains.</p><p>\"Instead of a brain-wide effect, living in a high-crime area during pregnancy seems to have more specific effects on the emotion-processing regions of babies\' brains,\" Brady said. \"We found that this weakening of the functional connections between emotion-processing structures in the babies\' brains was very robust when we controlled for other types of adversity, such as poverty. It appears that stresses linked to crime had more specific effects on brain function.\"</p><p>Reducing poverty and lowering crime rates are well-established goals of public policy and public health. And the researchers believe protecting expectant mothers from crime and helping them out of poverty will do more than improve brain growth and connections in their babies. But if social programs that aim to help people reach their full potential are to succeed, the researchers said the policies must focus on assisting people even before they are born.</p><p>\"Several research projects around the country are providing money for living expenses to pregnant mothers now, and some cities have determined that raising pregnant mothers out of poverty is good public policy,\" Smyser said. \"The evidence we\'re gathering from these studies certainly would support that idea.\"</p>','2022-04-12 21:45:03.687215','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Washington University School of Medicine','Scanning the brains of newborns, researchers have found that maternal exposure to poverty and crime can influence the structure and function of young brains even before babies make their entrances into the world.\n',1,106,'<li>Regina L. Triplett, Rachel E. Lean, Amisha Parikh, J. Philip Miller, Dimitrios Alexopoulos, Sydney Kaplan, Dominique Meyer, Christopher Adamson, Tara A. Smyser, Cynthia E. Rogers, Deanna M. Barch, Barbara Warner, Joan L. Luby, Christopher D. Smyser. <strong>Association of Prenatal Exposure to Early-Life Adversity With Neonatal Brain Volumes at Birth</strong>. <em>JAMA Network Open</em>, 2022; 5 (4): e227045 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.7045\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.7045</a>\n</li>'),(2060,'How biomolecule mixtures communicate, interact and adapt to their environment','how-biomolecule-mixtures-communicate,-interact-and-adapt-to-their-environment','2022-04-12 21:45:09.155857',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A post-doctoral researcher with the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) has made an important step toward understanding how complex mixtures of biomolecular building blocks form self-organized patterns.</p><p>The discovery -- detailed in a new paperpublished in the journal <em>Chem</em> and authored by Ankit Jain, a member of CUNY ASRC Nanoscience Initiative Director Rein Ulijn\'s lab -- provides new knowledge about adaptive biological functions, which could be critical in designing novel materials and technologies with similar abilities and attributes<em>.</em></p><p>\"All life forms start with the same conserved sets of building blocks, which includes the 20 amino acids that make up proteins,\" said Jain. \"Figuring out how mixtures of these molecules communicate, interact and form self-organizing patterns would enhance our understanding of how biology creates functionality. This understanding could also give rise to completely new ways of creating materials and technologies that incorporate life processes such as adapting, growing, healing and developing new properties when required.\"</p><p>Jain took a new, synthetic, approach to begin uncovering how complex biomolecule mixtures interact and collectively adapt to changes in their environment. Instead of trying to disentangle molecular organization in existing systems, such as those found in biological cells, he addressed the problem in a test tube by creating mixtures with components designed to react and interact. Jain then tracked and observed the emergence of increasingly complex patterns that the biomolecules spontaneously formed in response to changes in their environment.</p><p>\"Complex mixtures of interacting molecules are fundamental to life processes, but they are not commonly studied in chemistry labs, because they are messy, very complicated and difficult to study and understand,\" said Ulijn. \"Systematically designing mixtures and tracking their behavior allows us to make fundamental observations about how mixtures of molecules become functional collectives. We were able to detail how these chemical systems absorb changes in external conditions to form specific patterns of build-up and breakdown. We also discovered that systems with so many variables show a stochastic behavior, so while overall pattern formation looks similar when running multiple experiments, the precise details in two independent experiments are different.\"</p><p>Jain\'s experiment began with mixing a number of selected dipeptides, which are minimalistic protein-like compounds composed of two amino acids. These sets of dipeptides (designed based on their ability to aggregate and interact) also contained a catalyst that enabled the dipeptides to dynamically recombine and form peptides with more complex interaction patterns. The most complex system studied in this paper began with 15 different dipeptides, which reversibly combine to form 225 unique tetrapeptides. It was then possible for Jain to track the formation and breakdown of peptides of different sequence within the mixtures. He observed that their patterns of interaction were strongly dictated by environmental conditions.</p><p>Illuminating molecular self-organization through hierarchical patterns of both covalent and non-covalent interactions is key to understanding how biological functions relevant to life emerge. The new bottom-up approach enables researchers to understand, for the first time, ensemble characteristics while simultaneously providing molecular resolution of the information. The work demonstrates that mixtures of simple molecules demonstrate spontaneous sequence selection, which may provide insights into the chemical origins of biological function. Overall, the design of adaptive systems based on multi-component mixtures is likely to lead to discovery of how patterns dictate the formation of reconfigurable, functional materials that hold promise for future bioinspired technologies.</p>','2022-04-12 21:45:09.155857','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Advanced Science Research Center, GC/CUNY','New research breakthrough bridges a complexity gap between chemistry and biology and provides a new methodology that uses designed mixtures to engineer adaptive properties that are normally only associated with living systems.\n',1,27,'<li>Ankit Jain, Scott A. McPhee, Tong Wang, Maya Narayanan Nair, Daniela Kroiss, Tony Z. Jia, Rein V. Ulijn. <strong>Tractable molecular adaptation patterns in a designed complex peptide system</strong>. <em>Chem</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chempr.2022.03.016\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.chempr.2022.03.016</a>\n</li>'),(2061,'Modeling Earth\'s magnetosphere in the laboratory','modeling-earth\'s-magnetosphere-in-the-laboratory','2022-04-12 21:45:12.187059',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A magnetosphere forms around any magnetized object, such as a planet, that is immersed within a stream of ionized gas, called plasma. Because Earth possesses an intrinsic magnetic field, the planet is surrounded by a large magnetosphere that extends out into space, blocks lethal cosmic rays and particles from the sun and stars, and allows life itself to exist.</p><p>In<em> Physics of Plasmas</em>, by AIP Publishing, scientists from Princeton, UCLA, and the Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal, report a method to study smaller magnetospheres, sometimes just millimeters thick, in the laboratory.</p><p>These mini-magnetospheres have been observed around comets and near certain regions of the moon and have been suggested to propel spacecraft. They are good testbeds for studying larger planet-sized magnetospheres.</p><p>Previous laboratory experiments have been carried out utilizing plasma wind tunnels or high-energy lasers to create mini-magnetospheres. However, these earlier experiments were limited to 1D measurements of magnetic fields that do not capture the full 3D behavior scientists need to understand.</p><p>\"To overcome these limitations, we have developed a new experimental platform to study mini-magnetospheres on the Large Plasma Device (LAPD) at UCLA,\" said author Derek Schaeffer.</p><p>This platform combines the magnetic field of the LAPD with a fast laser-driven plasma and a current-driven dipole magnet.</p><p>The LAPD magnetic field provides a model of the solar system\'s interplanetary magnetic field, while the laser-driven plasma models the solar wind and the dipole magnet provides a model for the Earth\'s inherent magnetic field. Motorized probes allow system scans in three dimensions by combining data from tens of thousands of laser shots.</p><p>One advantage to using this setup is that the magnetic field and other parameters can be carefully varied and controlled.</p><p>If the dipole magnet is switched off, all signs of a magnetosphere disappear. When the magnetic field of the dipole is switched on, a magnetopause can be detected, which is key evidence of the formation of a magnetosphere.</p><p>A magnetopause is the place in the magnetosphere where pressure from the planetary magnetic field is exactly balanced by the solar wind. The experiments revealed that as the dipole magnetic field is increased, the magnetopause gets larger and stronger.</p><p>The effect on the magnetopause was predicted by computer simulations, which were carried out by the investigators to understand and validate their experimental results more fully. These simulations will also guide future experiments, including studies utilizing a cathode recently installed on the LAPD.</p><p>\"The new cathode will enable faster plasma flows, which in turn will allow us to study the bow shocks observed around many planets,\" Schaeffer said.</p><p>Other experiments will study magnetic reconnection, an important process in Earth\'s magnetosphere in which magnetic fields annihilate to release tremendous energy.</p>','2022-04-12 21:45:12.187059','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American Institute of Physics','Scientists report a method to study smaller magnetospheres, sometimes just millimeters thick, in the laboratory. The new experimental platform combines the magnetic field of the Large Plasma Device with a fast laser-driven plasma and a current-driven dipole magnet. The LAPD magnetic field provides a model of the solar system\'s interplanetary magnetic field, while the laser-driven plasma models the solar wind and the dipole magnet provides a model for the Earth\'s inherent magnetic field. Motorized probes allow system scans in three dimensions by combining data from tens of thousands of laser shots.\n',1,113,'<li>D. B. Schaeffer, F. D. Cruz, R. S. Dorst, F. Cruz, P. V. Heuer, C. G. Constantin, P. Pribyl, C. Niemann, L. O. Silva, A. Bhattacharjee. <strong>Laser-driven, ion-scale magnetospheres in laboratory plasmas. I. Experimental platform and first results</strong>. <em>Physics of Plasmas</em>, 2022; 29 (4): 042901 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0084353\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1063/5.0084353</a>\n</li>'),(2062,'Simulating supernova remnants, star formation in earthbound lab','simulating-supernova-remnants,-star-formation-in-earthbound-lab','2022-04-12 21:45:14.843249',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Molecular clouds are collections of gas and dust in space. When left alone, the clouds remain in their state of peaceful equilibrium.</p><p>But when triggered by some external agent, like supernova remnants, shockwaves can propagate through the gas and dust to create pockets of dense material. At a certain limit, that dense gas and dust collapses and begins to form new stars.</p><p>Astronomical observations do not have high enough spatial resolution to observe these processes, and numerical simulations cannot handle the complexity of the interaction between clouds and supernova remnants. Therefore, the triggering and formation of new stars in this way remains mostly shrouded in mystery.</p><p>In Matter and Radiation at Extremes, by AIP Publishing in partnership with China Academy of Engineering Physics, researchers from the Polytechnic Institute of Paris, the Free University of Berlin, the Joint Institute for High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, the University of Oxford, and Osaka University modeled the interaction between supernova remnants and molecular clouds using a high-power laser and a foam ball.</p><p>The foam ball represents a dense area within a molecular cloud. The high-power laser creates a blast wave that propagates through a surrounding chamber of gas and into the ball, where the team observed the compression using X-ray images.</p><p>\"We are really looking at the beginning of the interaction,\" said author Bruno Albertazzi. \"In this way, you can see if the average density of the foam increases and if you will begin to form stars more easily.\"</p><p>The mechanisms for triggering star formation are interesting on a number of scales. They can impact the star formation rate and evolution of a galaxy, help explain the formation of the most massive stars, and have consequences in our own solar system.</p><p>\"Our primitive molecular cloud, where the sun was formed, was probably triggered by supernova remnants,\" said author Albertazzi. \"This experiment opens a new and promising path for laboratory astrophysics to understand all these major points.\"</p><p>While some of the foam compressed, some of it also stretched out. This changed the average density of the material, so in the future, the authors will need to account for the stretched mass to truly measure the compressed material and the shockwave\'s impact on star formation. They plan to explore the influence of radiation, magnetic field, and turbulence.</p><p>\"This first paper was really to demonstrate the possibilities of this new platform opening a new topic that could be investigated using high-power lasers,\" said Albertazzi.</p>','2022-04-12 21:45:14.843249','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American Institute of Physics','When triggered by some external agent, shockwaves can propagate through molecular clouds of gas and dust to create pockets of dense material. At a certain limit, that dense gas and dust collapses and begins to form new stars. Researchers modeled this interaction using a high-power laser and a foam ball. The foam ball represents a dense area within a molecular cloud. The high-power laser creates a blast wave that propagates through a surrounding chamber of gas and into the ball, where the team observed the compression using X-ray images.\n',1,27,'<li>B. Albertazzi, P. Mabey, Th. Michel, G. Rigon, J. R. Marquès, S. Pikuz, S. Ryazantsev, E. Falize, L. Van Box Som, J. Meinecke, N. Ozaki, G. Gregori, M. Koenig. <strong>Triggering star formation: Experimental compression of a foam ball induced by Taylor–Sedov blast waves</strong>. <em>Matter and Radiation at Extremes</em>, 2022; 7 (3): 036902 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0068689\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1063/5.0068689</a>\n</li>'),(2063,'A small mutation can make Zika virus even more dangerous','a-small-mutation-can-make-zika-virus-even-more-dangerous','2022-04-12 21:45:18.030720',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Researchers at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) have found that Zika virus can mutate to become more infective -- and potentially break through pre-existing immunity.</p><p>\"The world should monitor the emergence of this Zika virus variant,\" says LJI Professor Sujan Shresta, Ph.D., who co-led the <em>Cell Reports</em> study with Professor Pei-Yong Shi, Ph.D., of the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB).</p><p>Zika virus is carried by mosquitoes, and the symptoms of Zika infection are usually mild in adults. However, the virus can infect a developing fetus, resulting in birth defects such as microcephaly.</p><p>Zika virus and dengue virus overlap in many countries worldwide. Like Zika, dengue virus is a mosquito-borne flavivirus, and thus shares many biological properties. In fact, the viruses are similar enough that the immune response sparked by prior dengue exposure can offer protection against Zika.</p><p>\"In areas where Zika is prevalent, a vast majority of people have already been exposed to dengue virus and have both T cells and antibodies that cross-react,\" says Shresta.</p><p>Unfortunately, both viruses are also quick to mutate. \"Dengue and Zika are RNA viruses, which means they can change their genome,\" explains Shresta. \"When there are so many mosquitoes and so many human hosts, these viruses are constantly moving back and forth and evolving.\"</p><p>To study Zika\'s fast-paced evolution, the LJI team recreated infection cycles that repeatedly switched back and forth between mosquito cells and mice. This work gave the LJI scientists a window into how Zika virus naturally evolves as it encounters more hosts.</p><p>The researchers found it is relatively easy for Zika virus to acquire a single amino acid change that allows the virus to make more copies of itself -- and help infections take hold more easily. This mutation (called NS2B I39V/I39T mutation) boosts the virus\'s ability to replicate in both mice and mosquitoes. This Zika variant also showed increased replication in human cells.</p><p>\"This single mutation is sufficient to enhance Zika virus virulence,\" says study first author Jose Angel Regla-Nava, Ph.D., former postdoctoral researcher at LJI and current Associate Professor at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico. \"A high replication rate in either a mosquito or human host could increase viral transmission or pathogenicity -- and cause a new outbreak.\"</p><p>Adds Shresta, \"The Zika variant that we identified had evolved to the point where the cross-protective immunity afforded by prior dengue infection was no longer effective in mice. Unfortunately for us, if this variant becomes prevalent, we may have the same issues in real life.\"</p><p>So how can we prepare for this kind of variant? Shresta\'s laboratory is already looking at ways to tailor Zika vaccines and treatments that counteract this dangerous mutation. She will also continue to work closely with Regla-Nava to better understand exactly how this mutation helps Zika replicate more efficiently.</p><p>\"We want to understand at what point in the viral life cycle this mutation makes a difference,\" says Shresta.</p><p><em>This research was supported by the the National Institutes of Health (R01 AI153500, R01 AI163188, R56 AI148635, U01 AI151810, R01 NS106387, R01 AI134907, R43 AI145617, and UL1 TR001439), the Sealy &amp; Smith Foundation, the Kleberg Foundation, the John S. Dunn Foundation, the Amon G. Carter Foundation, the Gilson Longenbaugh Foundation, and the Summerfield Robert Foundation.</em></p>','2022-04-12 21:45:18.030720','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'La Jolla Institute for Immunology','Researchers have found that Zika virus can mutate to become more infective -- and potentially break through pre-existing immunity.\n',1,27,'<li>Jose Angel Regla-Nava et al. <strong>A Zika Virus Mutation Enhances Transmission Potential and Confers Escape from Protective Dengue Virus Immunity</strong>. <em>Cell Reports</em>, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110655\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110655</a>\n</li>'),(2064,'How to find anti-cancer agents','how-to-find-anti-cancer-agents','2022-04-12 21:45:20.921274',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI and the Italian Institute of Technology IIT have developed a novel substance that disables a protein in the cell skeleton, leading to cell death. In this way, substances of this type can prevent, for example, the growth of tumours. To accomplish this, the researchers combined a structural biological method with the computational design of active agents. The study appeared in the journal <em>Angewandte Chemie International Edition</em>.</p><p>The cell skeleton, also called the cytoskeleton, pervades all of our cells as a dynamic network of thread-like protein structures. It gives cells their form, aids in the transport of proteins and larger cell components, and plays a crucial role in cell division. The central building block is the protein tubulin. It arranges itself into tube-shaped structures, the microtubule filaments.</p><p>Active agents that attach to the cell skeleton are among the most effective drugs against cancer. They block tubulin, and thus prevent cell division in tumours. PSI researchers, in collaboration with the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa, have now developed another potent substance that disables tubulin. The have dubbed it \'Todalam\'.</p><p>\"Todalam prevents tubulin from arranging itself in the form of microtubule filaments,\" explains first author Tobias Mühlethaler, who co-designed and studied the substance as part of his doctoral research at PSI. \"The protein remains as if frozen in a structure that doesn\'t fit into microtubules.\"</p><p><strong>Rationally designed</strong></p><p>There are typically two different approaches for developing new drugs: Researchers can test an enormous number of molecules to fish out the ones that appear promising, or they can specifically design chemical molecules that achieve the desired effect. The PSI and IIT researchers chose the second path, which is often more difficult.</p><p>In doing this, they were able to build on their own groundwork, research in which they had already located places in tubulin where molecules can dock especially well. These are the so-called binding pockets, of which they found 27. In addition, the researchers identified 56 fragments that bind to these sites. This work, too, had been published earlier in <em>Angewandte Chemie International Edition</em>.</p><p>In the current study based on this prior work, the researchers initially selected a newly discovered binding pocket on tubulin. They used computational design to combine the structures of three molecular fragments, which preferentially dock at this point, into a single chemical compound, and then they synthesised it in the laboratory. \"By combining the three fragments into one molecule, we hoped to enhance the effect, since the new molecule fills the binding pocket better,\" says Michel Steinmetz, head of the Laboratory of Biomolecular Research at PSI.</p><p>Using measurements at the Swiss Light Source SLS, the researchers checked to see how well the molecule actually fits into the binding pocket. In two further cycles, they improved the substance until they arrived at Todalam. \"With relatively simple chemistry, we managed to get to a potent compound,\" proudly says Andrea Prota, a scientist in the Steinmetz group who collaborated closely with Mühlethaler.</p><p><strong>Simple chemical structure</strong></p><p>In cell cultures, the researchers demonstrated that Todalam kills cells. No wonder, since tubulin is essential for life. \"The better a substance binds to a critical site in tubulin, the more toxic it is for the cells,\" Steinmetz explains. That makes Todalam a promising starting point for developing a drug.</p><p>The cytoskeletal inhibitors currently in clinical use are natural substances with large, complex structures and are therefore difficult to synthesise. The newly developed compound Todalam, on the other hand, can be produced in a simple chemical synthesis in the laboratory. \"That also means that the compound could be produced in large quantities relatively easily,\" Steinmetz stresses.</p>','2022-04-12 21:45:20.921274','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Paul Scherrer Institute','Researchers have developed a novel substance that disables a protein in the cell skeleton, leading to cell death. In this way, substances of this type can prevent, for example, the growth of tumors. To accomplish this, the researchers combined a structural biological method with the computational design of active agents.\n',1,29,'<li>Tobias Mühlethaler, Lampros Milanos, Jose Antonio Martínez, Thorsten Blum, Dario Gioia, Bibhas Roy, Andrea Prota, Andrea Cavalli, Michel O. Steinmetz. <strong>Rational Design of a Novel Tubulin Inhibitor with a Unique Mechanism of Action</strong>. <em>Angewandte Chemie International Edition</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.202204052\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/anie.202204052</a>\n</li>'),(2065,'Lack of marshaling ports hindering offshore wind industry','lack-of-marshaling-ports-hindering-offshore-wind-industry','2022-04-12 21:45:22.983706',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">As the United States works to shift more of its power generation to renewable resources, University of Delaware researchers Sara Parkison and Willett Kempton have co-authored a paper in the journal <em>Energy Policy</em> that sheds light into the infrastructure required to meet targets for offshore wind power generation.</p><p>In March 2021, the Biden Administration announced a target goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy in the United States by 2030 and 110 gigawatts by 2050. States up and down the East Coast already have planned or have committed to producing as much as 40 gigawatts of offshore wind power -- enough to power approximately 13 million homes -- by 2040.</p><p>So, what\'s holding the clean energy economy back?</p><p>The UD report reveals that the nation\'s existing and planned marshaling ports, the assembly areas critical to building and deploying offshore wind turbines, will be insufficient by 2023 to meet state and federal commitments. Further, the available marshaling port area will meet less than half of projected demand through 2050.</p><p>\"This study is not an off-the-cuff estimate,\" said Parkison, a doctoral candidate in marine science and policy and 2022 Knauss Fellow. \"It is a detailed analysis informed by insights from industry experts, including vessel operators, port operators, developers and people who have been doing this for 20 to 30 years. And it shows that the industry is facing a real bottleneck.</p><p>\"Stated simply, the amount of marshaling area that we have is too little and the amount that is planned will not be enough, creating a significant shortfall that will have ramifications on the growth of the offshore wind industry.\"</p><p><strong>Supporting a growing industry</strong></p><p>Parkison explained that to prepare for the growth of offshore wind turbines in the U.S., it\'s necessary to think about using domestic supplies and infrastructure, rather than solely relying on an international global supply chain. Currently, however, U.S.-based infrastructure is not robust enough to meet demand.</p><p>Major supply chain hurdles facing the U.S. offshore wind industry were recently reinforced by a National Renewable Energy Laboratory report, which echoed the risks of relying on a foreign supply chain as well as the shortage of U.S. ports capable of marshaling offshore wind turbines. The UD study goes a step further and quantifies how many acres per year are needed to meet U.S. offshore wind power targets on time -- showing how big the port shortage actually is.</p><p>A marshaling port provides a staging ground where turbine parts for a structure as tall as the Eiffel Tower can be housed, partially assembled or readied before they are installed in the ocean. The area is both challenging to locate and to develop.</p><p>A 2020 market analysis by Parkison, Kempton and nine undergraduate students, completed with funding from UD\'s Office Of Economic Innovation and Partnerships\' Spin In program, found that a 1-gigawatt offshore wind project required 54 acres of marshaling area over 2 years.</p><p>In this latest report, the researchers compared the 2020 data against what marshaling ports will be available, how much area they supply and whether that supply will be able to support turbine deployment demand over the next 20 to 30 years. The short answer -- it won\'t.</p><p>In fact, the total planned and existing marshaling ports in the U.S. are expected to provide less than half of what will be needed to support the development of turbines over the next three decades. Complicating matters, this amount of available marshaling area will be strained to support multiple competitors vying to use the same marshaling ports, vessels and other resources to achieve their goals and timelines.</p><p>To avoid a domino effect, where delays on one project cause a cascade of disruptions elsewhere, the report offers three simple solutions:</p><p>Invest in more marshaling ports sooner rather than later,</p><p>Expand available marshaling area, and</p><p>Use existing and planned area in smarter ways.</p><p><strong>Invest, expand and stay smart</strong></p><p>Europe has been in the offshore wind energy business for 30 years. Its infrastructure is mature and includes fine-tuned methods for rapidly deploying offshore wind turbines safely, efficiently and economically. For comparison, the existing and planned U.S. marshaling ports comprise less than a third of the area and deployment capacity of Europe\'s top three most used ports for marshaling.</p><p>\"And yet, in the U.S. we\'re looking to install twice as much power capacity over a shorter amount of time than the EU has accomplished over the last 20 years,\" Parkison said.</p><p>To have the best chance of success, it will be important to use near-term alternatives while building out as much marshaling area as possible. The U.S. will need to \"make do\" with existing marshaling area by using alternative methods, such as feeder barges situated offshore that can ferry equipment from port to installation vessels located at sea -- kind of like a relay for turbine parts. The approach, however, is not without its hurdles.</p><p>\"Feeder barges are in limited supply, less safe and take longer to finish installations, causing other problems further down the line,\" explained Parkison.</p><p>Resulting delays could mean fees and penalties for developers that need to extend port leases beyond agreed-upon dates and will cause setbacks in \"turning on\" the power -- all of which can hinder other projects in the pipeline. It will have ramifications for meeting other loftier ambitions, such as the federal targets of 30 gigawatts by 2030 and 110 GW by 2050, too.</p><p>\"At this rate, those targets won\'t be met,\" Parkison said. In the bigger scheme of things, it also will mean delays in the nationwide, multi-level attempt to try and mitigate climate change.</p><p>Doing more turbine assembly in port would provide less dependency on vessels that themselves are not keeping pace with growing turbine sizes. But in-port assembly methods also point to a need for more marshaling room for today and for future growth.</p><p>\"You need ports that are capable of not only marshaling 10- or 12-megawatt turbines, but also moving towards the capacity for 15-, 20-, 25-megawatt turbines that are going to outpace what we currently have,\" said Parkison.</p><p>Upgrading smaller ports is a start. For example, a 30-acre marshaling port already exists in New England and there is a 60-acre port planned for New Jersey.</p><p>Considering larger ports will also be necessary. Marshaling ports around 100 acres are a more economically sound and logistically advantageous method of getting turbines out to sea more quickly and safely than some of the alternative methods.</p><p>According to Parkison, European developers have stated they will travel 200 miles for a sizable port that allows them to use efficient deployment methods. The conceptual Delaware port suggested in the 2020 UD market analysis is an example where 100 acres of marshaling area could be achieved. And while some have wondered if having a 100-acre marshaling port in Delaware and another 60-acre marshaling port across the Delaware Bay in New Jersey is too much, Parkison disagrees.</p><p>\"If you look at the sum of all existing and planned area, it still amounts to less than half the area that\'s needed,\" she said. \"So, neither marshaling port will pull business away from the other; instead they\'ll both be contributing to a massive market need.\"</p><p>Transitioning to a cleaner economy will take commitment, cooperation and collaboration, but the benefits to the nation, and planet, would be many.</p><p>\"Meeting the Biden Administration\'s targets on time means that we can sooner provide an alternative energy source to displace more of our fossil-fuel-burning resources,\" Parkison said. \"It also means another source of energy security -- more energy produced at home that\'s less reliant on international geopolitics.\"</p><p>The costs of waiting are greater than just financial or logistical. They include things people might not typically consider, such as the social cost of carbon to health, ecosystems and sea level rise, a particular concern in Delaware.</p><p>Claire Richer, director of Offshore Wind with the American Clean Power Association, called the report a useful tool to help justify funding for expansion of offshore wind infrastructure to Congress.</p><p>\"The report demonstrates the need for a substantially resourced Port Infrastructure Development Plan in a budget reconciliation bill such as Build Back Better,\" said Richer.</p><p>Kempton, UD professor of marine science and policy and associate director and founder of the Center for Research in Wind (CReW), agreed, adding, \"The report lays out the overall infrastructure needed for offshore wind deployment, quantifies shortfalls and identifies precisely what is needed to overcome them. This is significant because it provides states and port developers the specific guidance needed to build the infrastructure to meet state and federal offshore wind targets.\"</p>','2022-04-12 21:45:22.983706','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Delaware','A new study finds that the nation\'s existing and planned marshaling ports, the assembly areas critical to building and deploying offshore wind turbines, will be insufficient by 2023 to meet commitments and will fail to meet projected demand through 2050.\n',1,210,'<li>Sara B. Parkison, Willett Kempton. <strong>Marshaling ports required to meet US policy targets for offshore wind power</strong>. <em>Energy Policy</em>, 2022; 163: 112817 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2022.112817\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.enpol.2022.112817</a>\n</li>'),(2066,'Breakthrough measurement elucidates neutrino interactions','breakthrough-measurement-elucidates-neutrino-interactions','2022-04-12 21:45:27.874251',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Physicists studying ghost-like particles called neutrinos from the international MicroBooNE collaboration have reported a first-of-its-kind measurement: a comprehensive set of the energy-dependent neutrino-argon interaction cross sections. This measurement marks an important step towards achieving the scientific goals of next-generation of neutrino experiments -- namely, the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE).</p><p>Neutrinos are tiny subatomic particles that are both famously elusive and tremendously abundant. While they endlessly bombard every inch of Earth\'s surface at nearly the speed of light, neutrinos can travel through a lightyear\'s worth of lead without ever disturbing a single atom. Understanding these mysterious particles could unlock some of the biggest secrets of the universe.</p><p>The MicroBooNE experiment, located at the U.S. Department of Energy\'s (DOE) Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, has been collecting data on neutrinos since 2015, partially as a testbed for DUNE, which is currently under construction. To identify elusive neutrinos, both experiments use a low-noise liquid-argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) -- a sophisticated detector that captures neutrino signals as the particles pass through frigid liquid argon kept at -303 degrees Fahrenheit. MicroBooNE physicists have been refining LArTPC techniques for large-scale detectors at DUNE.</p><p>Now, a team effort led by scientists at DOE\'s Brookhaven National Laboratory, in collaboration with researchers from Yale University and Louisiana State University, has further refined those techniques by measuring the neutrino-argon cross section. Their work published today in <em>Physical Review Letters</em>.</p><p>\"The neutrino-argon cross section represents how argon nuclei respond to an incident neutrino, such as those in the neutrino beam produced by MicroBooNE or DUNE,\" said Brookhaven Lab physicist Xin Qian, leader of Brookhaven\'s MicroBooNE physics group. \"Our ultimate goal is to study the properties of neutrinos, but first we need to better understand how neutrinos interact with the material in a detector, such as argon atoms.\"</p><p>One of the most important neutrino properties that DUNE will investigate is how the particles oscillate between three distinct \"flavors\": muon neutrino, tau neutrino, and electron neutrino. Scientists know that these oscillations depend on neutrinos\' energy, among other parameters, but that energy is very challenging to estimate. Not only are neutrino interactions extremely complex in nature, but there is also a large energy spread within every neutrino beam. Determining the detailed energy-dependent cross sections provides physicists with an essential piece of information to study neutrino oscillations.</p><p>\"Once we know the cross section, we can reverse the calculation to determine the average neutrino energy, flavor, and oscillation properties from a large number of interactions,\" said Brookhaven Lab postdoc Wenqiang Gu, who led the physics analysis.</p><p>To accomplish this, the team developed a new technique to extract the detailed energy-dependent cross section.</p><p>\"Previous techniques measured the cross section as a function of variables that are easily reconstructed,\" said London Cooper-Troendle, a graduate student from Yale University who is stationed at Brookhaven Lab through DOE\'s Graduate Student Research Program. \"For example, if you are studying a muon neutrino, you generally see a charged muon coming out of the particle interaction, and this charged muon has well-defined properties like its angle and energy. So, one can measure the cross section as a function of the muon angle or energy. But without a model that can accurately account for \"missing energy,\" a term we use to describe additional energy in the neutrino interactions that can\'t be attributed to the reconstructed variables, this technique would require experiments to act conservatively.\"</p><p>The research team led by Brookhaven sought to validate the neutrino energy reconstruction process with unprecedented precision, improving theoretical modeling of neutrino interactions as needed for DUNE. To do so, the team applied their expertise and lessons learned from previous work on the MicroBooNE experiment, such as their efforts in reconstructing interactions with different neutrino flavors.</p><p>\"We added a new constraint to significantly improve the mathematical modeling of neutrino energy reconstruction,\" said Louisiana State University assistant professor Hanyu Wei, previously a Goldhaber fellow at Brookhaven.</p><p>The team validated this newly constrained model against experimental data to produce the first detailed energy-dependent neutrino-argon cross section measurement.</p><p>\"The neutrino-argon cross section results from this analysis are able to distinguish between different theoretical models for the first time,\" Gu said.</p><p>While physicists expect DUNE to produce enhanced measurements of the cross section, the methods developed by the MicroBooNE collaboration provide a foundation for future analyses. The current cross section measurement is already set to guide additional developments on theoretical models.</p><p>In the meantime, the MicroBooNE team will focus on further enhancing its measurement of the cross section. The current measurement was done in one dimension, but future research will tackle the value in multiple dimensions -- that is, as a function of multiple variables -- and explore more avenues of underlying physics.</p><p>This work was supported by the DOE Office of Science.</p>','2022-04-12 21:45:27.874251','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory','Physicists studying ghost-like particles called neutrinos from the international MicroBooNE collaboration have reported a first-of-its-kind measurement: a comprehensive set of the energy-dependent neutrino-argon interaction cross sections. This measurement marks an important step towards achieving the scientific goals of next-generation of neutrino experiments--namely, the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE).\n',1,2,'<li>P. Abratenko, R. An, J. Anthony, L. Arellano, J. Asaadi, A. Ashkenazi, S. Balasubramanian, B. Baller, C. Barnes, G. Barr, V. Basque, L. Bathe-Peters, O. Benevides Rodrigues, S. Berkman, A. Bhanderi, A. Bhat, M. Bishai, A. Blake, T. Bolton, J. Y. Book, L. Camilleri, D. Caratelli, I. Caro Terrazas, F. Cavanna, G. Cerati, Y. Chen, D. Cianci, J. M. Conrad, M. Convery, L. Cooper-Troendle, J. I. Crespo-Anadón, M. Del Tutto, S. R. Dennis, P. Detje, A. Devitt, R. Diurba, R. Dorrill, K. Duffy, S. Dytman, B. Eberly, A. Ereditato, J. J. Evans, R. Fine, G. A. Fiorentini Aguirre, R. S. Fitzpatrick, B. T. Fleming, N. Foppiani, D. Franco, A. P. Furmanski, D. Garcia-Gamez, S. Gardiner, G. Ge, S. Gollapinni, O. Goodwin, E. Gramellini, P. Green, H. Greenlee, W. Gu, R. Guenette, P. Guzowski, L. Hagaman, O. Hen, C. Hilgenberg, G. A. Horton-Smith, A. Hourlier, R. Itay, C. James, X. Ji, L. Jiang, J. H. Jo, R. A. Johnson, Y.-J. Jwa, D. Kalra, N. Kamp, N. Kaneshige, G. Karagiorgi, W. Ketchum, M. Kirby, T. Kobilarcik, I. Kreslo, I. Lepetic, K. Li, Y. Li, K. Lin, B. R. Littlejohn, W. C. Louis, X. Luo, K. Manivannan, C. Mariani, D. Marsden, J. Marshall, D. A. Martinez Caicedo, K. Mason, A. Mastbaum, N. McConkey, V. Meddage, T. Mettler, K. Miller, J. Mills, K. Mistry, A. Mogan, T. Mohayai, J. Moon, M. Mooney, A. F. Moor, C. D. Moore, L. Mora Lepin, J. Mousseau, M. Murphy, D. Naples, A. Navrer-Agasson, M. Nebot-Guinot, R. K. Neely, D. A. Newmark, J. Nowak, M. Nunes, O. Palamara, V. Paolone, A. Papadopoulou, V. Papavassiliou, S. F. Pate, N. Patel, A. Paudel, Z. Pavlovic, E. Piasetzky, I. D. Ponce-Pinto, S. Prince, X. Qian, J. L. Raaf, V. Radeka, A. Rafique, M. Reggiani-Guzzo, L. Ren, L. C. J. Rice, L. Rochester, J. Rodriguez Rondon, M. Rosenberg, M. Ross-Lonergan, G. Scanavini, D. W. Schmitz, A. Schukraft, W. Seligman, M. H. Shaevitz, R. Sharankova, J. Shi, J. Sinclair, A. Smith, E. L. Snider, M. Soderberg, S. Söldner-Rembold, P. Spentzouris, J. Spitz, M. Stancari, J. St. John, T. Strauss, K. Sutton, S. Sword-Fehlberg, A. M. Szelc, W. Tang, K. Terao, C. Thorpe, D. Totani, M. Toups, Y.-T. Tsai, M. A. Uchida, T. Usher, W. Van De Pontseele, B. Viren, M. Weber, H. Wei, Z. Williams, S. Wolbers, T. Wongjirad, M. Wospakrik, K. Wresilo, N. Wright, W. Wu, E. Yandel, T. Yang, G. Yarbrough, L. E. Yates, H. W. Yu, G. P. Zeller, J. Zennamo, C. Zhang. <strong>First Measurement of Energy-Dependent Inclusive Muon Neutrino Charged-Current Cross Sections on Argon with the MicroBooNE Detector</strong>. <em>Physical Review Letters</em>, 2022; 128 (15) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.151801\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.151801</a>\n</li>'),(2067,'Greater diversity in genetic studies helps researchers uncover new insights','greater-diversity-in-genetic-studies-helps-researchers-uncover-new-insights','2022-04-12 21:45:33.483511',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">In genomic studies, researchers examine the DNA of a population to understand the influence of genetics on health and disease. Though genomic studies have been common for more than a decade, most participants in these studies have been of European descent.</p><p>A new study led by Lindsay Fernández-Rhodes, assistant professor of biobehavioral health at Penn State, and Mariaelisa Graff, associate professor of epidemiology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has shown that increasing the diversity of genomic samples can improve researchers\' ability to identify important genetic markers for health conditions.</p><p><strong>Precision Medicine </strong></p><p>One of the goals of conducting genomic studies is to develop precision medicine, which is the delivery of the exact treatment or medication that a person needs exactly when they need it.</p><p>\"Precision medicine is a great idea, but it only works if we study the full diversity of the populations that we may see in the clinic,\" Fernández-Rhodes explained. \"We cannot treat people with precision if we do not have the relevant data. Previous large-scale genomic studies have largely overlooked Hispanic/Latino people. Since the United States is becoming increasingly diverse, our ability to provide appropriate medical treatment will suffer if the gaps in our genomic data are not addressed.\"</p><p><strong>The Hispanic/Latino Anthropometry Consortium</strong></p><p>Fernández-Rhodes and Graff were joined by more than 100 researchers from around the world to form the Hispanic/Latino Anthropometry Consortium. The consortium pools research expertise and genetic data on people of Hispanic/Latino ethnicity in order to bolster the diversity in genomic studies.</p><p>\"Our consortium fills a major research gap in genomic studies. Inclusion of individuals of diverse ancestral backgrounds is imperative, both from the perspective of scientific necessity and equity,\" said Kari E. North, professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina, one of the consortium\'s multiple principal investigators, and coauthor of this research. \"By embracing diversity, we are discovering novel genomic associations and moving the field forward.\"</p><p><strong>The value of diversity in genomic studies</strong></p><p>In a new article in <em>Human Genetics and Genomics Advances</em><em>, </em>Fernández-Rhodes and Graff led the examination of genomic data from more than 70,000 Hispanic/Latino individuals. The data were compiled from 18 smaller studies and combined with two other consortia to bring the total sample to over 470,000 adults. To date, the article is the largest published genomic study of body measures in Hispanic/Latino individuals.</p><p>The researchers identified regions of the genome that are associated with three body measurements: body mass index (BMI), height, and waste-to-hip ratio. BMI, a ratio of weight to height, is the most common assessment of obesity used by physicians. Waist-to-hip ratio indicates where on their bodies people are carrying excess weight.</p><p>Consortium researchers identified 42 previously unidentified regions of the human genome related to BMI, height, and waist-to-hip ratio. These traits have been examined in previous genomic studies, but the unique ancestry and experiences of Hispanic/Latino people made the regions easier to identify using the consortium\'s combined data.</p><p>The newly identified regions of the genome may help scientists understand how people grow, develop, and -- perhaps most importantly for human health -- develop obesity. Significantly, the regions appear to be relevant to the health and development of all people, regardless of their ancestry. The researchers say that the results indicate a widespread need to build larger, more diverse data sources.</p><p>\"There is a very large gap between who is experiencing obesity and who is being included in genomic studies. The consortium is working to close one part of that gap. Hopefully, this is the first step of many toward increased diversity in genomic studies,\" said Fernández-Rhodes. \"Researchers need to ensure that all people are represented in our scientific knowledge base. We need to harness the power of diversity to uncover the genes that pattern human health and disease.\"</p>','2022-04-12 21:45:33.483511','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Penn State','Increasing the diversity of genomic samples can improve researchers\' ability to identify important genetic markers for health conditions.\n',1,65,'<li>Lindsay Fernández-Rhodes, Mariaelisa Graff, Victoria L. Buchanan, Anne E. Justice, Heather M. Highland, Xiuqing Guo, Wanying Zhu, Hung-Hsin Chen, Kristin L. Young, Kaustubh Adhikari, Nicholette D. Palmer, Jennifer E. Below, Jonathan Bradfield, Alexandre C. Pereira, LáShauntá Glover, Daeeun Kim, Adam G. Lilly, Poojan Shrestha, Alvin G. Thomas, Xinruo Zhang, Minhui Chen, Charleston W.K. Chiang, Sara Pulit, Andrea Horimoto, Jose E. Krieger, Marta Guindo-Martínez, Michael Preuss, Claudia Schumann, Roelof A.J. Smit, Gabriela Torres-Mejía, Victor Acuña-Alonzo, Gabriel Bedoya, Maria-Cátira Bortolini, Samuel Canizales-Quinteros, Carla Gallo, Rolando González-José, Giovanni Poletti, Francisco Rothhammer, Hakon Hakonarson, Robert Igo, Sharon G. Adler, Sudha K. Iyengar, Susanne B. Nicholas, Stephanie M. Gogarten, Carmen R. Isasi, George Papnicolaou, Adrienne M. Stilp, Qibin Qi, Minjung Kho, Jennifer A. Smith, Carl D. Langefeld, Lynne Wagenknecht, Roberta Mckean-Cowdin, Xiaoyi Raymond Gao, Darryl Nousome, David V. Conti, Ye Feng, Matthew A. Allison, Zorayr Arzumanyan, Thomas A. Buchanan, Yii-Der Ida Chen, Pauline M. Genter, Mark O. Goodarzi, Yang Hai, Willa Hsueh, Eli Ipp, Fouad R. Kandeel, Kelvin Lam, Xiaohui Li, Jerry L. Nadler, Leslie J. Raffel, Kathryn Roll, Kevin Sandow, Jingyi Tan, Kent D. Taylor, Anny H. Xiang, Jie Yao, Astride Audirac-Chalifour, Jose de Jesus Peralta Romero, Fernando Hartwig, Bernando Horta, John Blangero, Joanne E. Curran, Ravindranath Duggirala, Donna E. Lehman, Sobha Puppala, Laura Fejerman, Esther M. John, Carlos Aguilar-Salinas, Noël P. Burtt, Jose C. Florez, Humberto García-Ortíz, Clicerio González-Villalpando, Josep Mercader, Lorena Orozco, Teresa Tusié-Luna, Estela Blanco, Sheila Gahagan, Nancy J. Cox, Craig Hanis, Nancy F. Butte, Shelley A. Cole, Anthony G. Comuzzie, V. Saroja Voruganti, Rebecca Rohde, Yujie Wang, Tamar Sofer, Elad Ziv, Struan F.A. Grant, Andres Ruiz-Linares, Jerome I. Rotter, Christopher A. Haiman, Esteban J. Parra, Miguel Cruz, Ruth J.F. Loos, Kari E. North. <strong>Ancestral diversity improves discovery and fine-mapping of genetic loci for anthropometric traits—The Hispanic/Latino Anthropometry Consortium</strong>. <em>Human Genetics and Genomics Advances</em>, 2022; 3 (2): 100099 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.xhgg.2022.100099\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.xhgg.2022.100099</a>\n</li>'),(2068,'4 billion-year-old relic from early solar system heading our way','4-billion-year-old-relic-from-early-solar-system-heading-our-way','2022-04-12 21:45:39.176184',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">An enormous comet -- approximately 80 miles across, more than twice the width of Rhode Island -- is heading our way at 22,000 miles per hour from the edge of the solar system. Fortunately, it will never get closer than 1 billion miles from the sun, which is slightly farther from Earth than Saturn; that will be in 2031.</p><p>Comets, among the oldest objects in the solar system, are icy bodies that were unceremoniously tossed out of the solar system in a gravitational pinball game among the massive outer planets, said David Jewitt. The UCLA professor of planetary science and astronomy co-authored a new study of the comet in the <em>Astrophysical Journal Letters</em>. The evicted comets took up residence in the Oort cloud, a vast reservoir of far-flung comets encircling the solar system out to many billions of miles into deep space, he said.</p><p>A typical comet\'s spectacular multimillion-mile-long tail, which makes it look like a skyrocket, belies the fact that the source at the heart of the fireworks is a solid nucleus of ice mixed with dust -- essentially a dirty snowball. This huge one, called Comet C/2014 UN271 and discovered by astronomers Pedro Bernardinelli and Gary Bernstein, could be as large as 85 miles across.</p><p>\"This comet is literally the tip of the iceberg for many thousands of comets that are too faint to see in the more distant parts of the solar system,\" Jewitt said. \"We\'ve always suspected this comet had to be big because it is so bright at such a large distance. Now we confirm it is.\"</p><p>This comet has the largest nucleus ever seen in a comet by astronomers. Jewitt and his colleagues determined the size of its nucleus using NASA\'s Hubble Space Telescope. Its nucleus is about 50 times larger than those of most known comets. Its mass is estimated to be 500 trillion tons, a hundred thousand times greater than the mass of a typical comet found much closer to the sun.</p><p>\"This is an amazing object, given how active it is when it\'s still so far from the sun,\" said lead author Man-To Hui, who earned his doctorate from UCLA in 2019 and is now with the Macau University of Science and Technology in Taipa, Macau. \"We guessed the comet might be pretty big, but we needed the best data to confirm this.\"</p><p>So the researchers used Hubble to take five photos of the comet on Jan. 8, 2022, and incorporated radio observations of the comet into their analysis.</p><p>The comet is now less than 2 billion miles from the sun and in a few million years will loop back to its nesting ground in the Oort cloud, Jewitt said.</p><p>Comet C/2014 UN271 was first serendipitously observed in 2010, when it was 3 billion miles from the sun. Since then, it has been intensively studied by ground and space-based telescopes.</p><p>The challenge in measuring this comet was how to determine the solid nucleus from the huge dusty coma -- the cloud of dust and gas -- enveloping it. The comet is currently too far away for its nucleus to be visually resolved by Hubble. Instead, the Hubble data show a bright spike of light at the nucleus\' location. Hui and his colleagues next made a computer model of the surrounding coma and adjusted it to fit the Hubble images. Then, they subtracted the glow of the coma, leaving behind the nucleus.</p><p>Hui and his team compared the brightness of the nucleus to earlier radio observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA, in Chile. The new Hubble measurements are close to the earlier size estimates from ALMA, but convincingly suggest a darker nucleus surface than previously thought.</p><p>\"It\'s big and it\'s blacker than coal,\" Jewitt said.</p><p>The comet has been falling toward the sun for well over 1 million years. The Oort cloud is thought to be the nesting ground for trillions of comets. Jewitt thinks the Oort cloud extends from a few hundred times the distance between the sun and the Earth to at least a quarter of the way out to the distance of the nearest stars to our sun, in the Alpha Centauri system.</p><p>The Oort cloud\'s comets were tossed out of the solar system billions of years ago by the gravitation of the massive outer planets, according to Jewitt. The far-flung comets travel back toward the sun and planets only if their orbits are disturbed by the gravitational tug of a passing star, the professor said.</p><p>First hypothesized in 1950 by Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, the Oort cloud still remains a theory because the comets that make it up are too faint and distant to be directly observed. This means the solar system\'s largest structure is all but invisible, Jewitt said.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-04-12 21:45:39.176184','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - Los Angeles','An enormous comet -- approximately 80 miles across, more than twice the width of Rhode Island -- is heading our way at 22,000 miles per hour from the edge of the solar system. Fortunately, it will never get closer than 1 billion miles from the sun, and poses no danger to us.\n',1,44,'<li>Man-To Hui, David Jewitt, Liang-Liang Yu, Max J. Mutchler. <strong>Hubble Space Telescope Detection of the Nucleus of Comet C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli–Bernstein)</strong>. <em>The Astrophysical Journal Letters</em>, 2022; 929 (1): L12 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ac626a\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.3847/2041-8213/ac626a</a>\n</li>'),(2069,'New platform optimizes selection of combination cancer therapies','new-platform-optimizes-selection-of-combination-cancer-therapies','2022-04-12 21:45:41.941755',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have developed a new bioinformatics platform that predicts optimal treatment combinations for a given group of patients based on co-occurring tumor alterations. In retrospective validation studies, the tool selected combinations that resulted in improved patient outcomes across both pre-clinical and clinical studies.</p><p>The findings were presented today at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2022 by principal investigator Anil Korkut, Ph.D., assistant professor of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. The study results also were published today in <em>Cancer Discovery</em>.</p><p>The platform, called REcurrent Features LEveraged for Combination Therapy (REFLECT), integrates machine learning and cancer informatics algorithms to analyze biological tumor features -- including genetic mutations, copy number changes, gene expression and protein expression aberrations -- and identify frequent co-occurring alterations that could be targeted by multiple drugs.</p><p>\"Our ultimate goal is to make precision oncology more effective and create meaningful patient benefit,\" Korkut said. \"We believe REFLECT may be one of the tools that can help overcome some of the current challenges in the field by facilitating both the discovery and the selection of combination therapies matched to the molecular composition of tumors.\"</p><p>Targeted therapies have improved clinical outcomes for many patients with cancer, but monotherapies against a single target often lead to treatment resistance. Cancer cells frequently rely on co-occurring alterations, such as mutations in two signaling pathways, to drive tumor progression. Increasing evidence suggests that identifying and targeting both alterations simultaneously could increase durable responses, Korkut explained.</p><p>Led by Korkut and postdoctoral fellow Xubin Li, Ph.D., the researchers built and used the REFLECT tool to develop a systematic and unbiased approach to match patients with optimal combination therapies.</p><p>Using REFLECT, they analyzed pan-cancer datasets from both MD Anderson and publicly available sources, including pre-treatment patient tumor samples, cell lines and patient-derived xenografts (PDXs), representing more than 10,000 patients and 33 cancer types. This generated 201 patient cohorts, each defined by a single therapeutically actionable biomarker, such as <em>EGFR</em> mutation or PD-L1 overexpression.</p><p>Within each cohort, the team generated REFLECT signatures of additional alterations that may be actionable therapeutic targets, thus pointing to sub-cohorts that may benefit from specific combination therapies. Across all cohorts, the researchers identified a total of 2,166 combinations, with at least one Food and Drug Administration-approved agent, matched to co-occurring alterations. In total, 45% of the patients included in the initial analysis were matched to at least one combination therapy.</p><p>The researchers validated the REFLECT approach through retrospective analysis of publicly available pre-clinical and clinical studies, comparing REFLECT-matched combinations used in those trials to combinations not matched by the tool.</p><p>In pre-clinical trials with PDX models, REFLECT-matched combinations had a 34.5% decrease in median tumor volume, while non-matched combinations had a 5.1% increase. Similarly, progression-free survival (PFS) was higher with matched combinations. The researchers also demonstrated a higher synergy score in REFLECT combinations relative to others, defined using the highest single agent (HSA) model.</p><p>The researchers also retrospectively validated the approach in the clinical setting through available data from the I-PREDICT trials, which evaluated many combination therapies across diverse cancer types. Patients in this trial that received combinations predicted by REFLECT to be most beneficial had significantly longer PFS and overall survival compared to other combinations.</p><p>In this study, the team also developed a detailed map of oncogenic alterations that co-exist with specific immune features. This map revealed many common alterations that frequently co-occur with immunotherapy response markers, such as defects in DNA damage repair and changes in the levels of specific epigenetic regulators. The findings suggest that therapies targeting these pathways should be further studied as options to improve immunotherapy responses.</p><p>\"While REFLECT is still a concept that requires additional validation, we anticipate a great opportunity to translate this work into real clinical benefits,\" Korkut said. \"In the future, multi-omic profiles from pre-treatment patient samples could be loaded to the REFLECT pipeline to generate co-alteration signatures, allowing physicians to consider precision combination therapies tailored to molecular profiles of those patients.\"</p><p>In the future, this approach will benefit from improved informatics resources to better match therapies to alterations at the RNA and protein level, Korkut explained. Additionally, the researchers plan to expand their study to better address and predict toxicity from matched drug combinations. Finally, future studies also will seek to address the significant heterogeneity within tumors, which can affect response to targeted therapies.</p><p>The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute (P30 CA016672, U01 CA253472-01A1, 5UL1TR003167-02, 7R01CA206025-06), the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance Collaborative Research Award, the Innovation in Cancer Informatics Fund, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) (RP170640), MD Anderson\'s Colorectal Cancer Moon Shot<sup>®</sup>, the Department of Defense (W81WH-18-1-0678), the National Resource for Network Biology, and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (GM103504)</p><p>In addition to Korkut and Li, additional MD Anderson authors include: Gonghong Yan, Ph.D., Zeynep Dereli, Ph.D., and Behnaz Bozorgui, Ph.D., all of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology; Parisa Imanirad, Ph.D., of Systems Biology; David Menter, Ph.D., and Scott Kopetz, M.D., Ph.D., both of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology; Patrick G. Pilié, M.D., of Genitourinary Medical Oncology; and Timothy Yap, M.B.B.S., Ph.D., of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics. Collaborating authors include: Elisabeth Dowling, Ph.D., of Rice University, Houston; Jacob Elnaggar, of Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans; Augustin Luna, Ph.D., of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston; and Chris Sander, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston. </p>','2022-04-12 21:45:41.941755','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center','Researchers have developed a new computational tool to select optimal combination therapies for patients with cancer based on the co-occurring alterations in a given tumor.\n',1,65,'<li>Xubin Li, Elisabeth K. Dowling, Gonghong Yan, Zeynep Dereli, Behnaz Bozorgui, Parisa Imanirad, Jacob H. Elnaggar, Augustin Luna, David G. Menter, Patrick G. Pilie, Timothy A. Yap, Scott Kopetz, Chris Sander, Anil Korkut. <strong>Precision combination therapies based on recurrent oncogenic co-alterations</strong>. <em>Cancer Discovery</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1158/2159-8290.CD-21-0832\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1158/2159-8290.CD-21-0832</a>\n</li>'),(2070,'Increased aortic diameter raises risk of heart attack, stroke','increased-aortic-diameter-raises-risk-of-heart-attack,-stroke','2022-04-12 21:45:43.941698',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The diameter of the thoracic aorta is a biomarker for heart attacks and other adverse cardiovascular events in women and men, according to a new study published in the journal <em>Radiology</em>.</p><p>The aorta is a large artery that carries oxygenated blood to the heart and other parts of the body. The portion that passes through the chest, known as the thoracic aorta, is divided into an ascending aorta that rises from the left ventricle of the heart and a descending aorta in the back of the chest.</p><p>The thoracic aorta grows as we age, but changes of vessel size and structure, a phenomenon known as vascular remodeling, have a systemic nature involving hemodynamic -- basic measures of cardiovascular function and blood circulation -- and biological processes that are also linked to cardiovascular disease.</p><p>\"While enlargement of the thoracic aorta is a frequent finding in clinical practice, few longitudinal data regarding its long-term prognosis for major cardiovascular disease outcomes at the population level exist,\" said study senior author Maryam Kavousi M.D., Ph.D., from the Department of Epidemiology at Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.</p><p>Dr. Kavousi and colleagues assessed these associations in 2,178 participants from the population-based Rotterdam Study. Participants underwent multi-detector CT scans between 2003 and 2006 and were followed for nine years, on average. Thoracic aorta diameters were indexed for body mass index (BMI).</p><p>Larger BMI-indexed ascending and descending thoracic aortic diameters were significantly associated with increased risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes like stroke and death in both women and men.</p><p>\"Our results suggest that imaging-based assessment of diameter of thoracic aorta can be considered as a risk marker for future cardiovascular disease,\" Dr. Kavousi said.</p><p>In women, greater ascending aortic diameter was associated with 33% higher cardiovascular mortality risk. Remodeling of the aging aorta seems to be different between women and men with faster deterioration in women.</p><p>\"Aging could affect aortic health and structure more adversely in women than in men,\" Dr. Kavousi said.</p><p>The study findings suggest that cardiovascular risk assessment associated with thoracic aortic size among asymptomatic women and men could lead to effective, sex-specific prevention strategies.</p><p>\"As the aortic diameter is significantly related to body size, use of aortic diameters indexed for body measurements could improve its prognostic value for cardiovascular outcomes,\" Dr. Kavousi said.</p><p>Thoracic aorta size assessment could easily be added to existing screening methods, the researchers said. The cardiac CT scans deployed in the study are already commonly used to assess coronary calcium. Thoracic aortic diameter could also be measured routinely, for example as part of CT-based lung cancer screening.</p><p>The current study was based on a single CT-based assessment of thoracic aorta among a large group of participants from the general population, followed up for nine years for incidence of cardiovascular outcomes and mortality. The researchers have recently repeated the CT-based assessment of thoracic aorta among these participants after a median of 14 years.</p><p>\"This provides an exciting and unique opportunity to study sex-specific risk profiles and patterns of growth in thoracic aorta in the general population,\" Dr. Kavousi said.</p>','2022-04-12 21:45:43.941698','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Radiological Society of North America','The diameter of the thoracic aorta is a biomarker for heart attacks and other adverse cardiovascular events in women and men, according to a new study.\n',1,150,'<li>Oscar L. Rueda-Ochoa, Lidia R. Bons, Fang Zhu, Sofie Rohde, Khalid El Ghoul, Ricardo P. J. Budde, M. Kamran Ikram, Jaap W. Deckers, Meike W. Vernooij, Oscar H. Franco, Aad van der Lugt, Daniel Bos, Jolien W. Roos-Hesselink, Maryam Kavousi. <strong>Thoracic Aortic Diameter and Cardiovascular Events and Mortality                     among Women and Men</strong>. <em>Radiology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1148/radiol.210861\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1148/radiol.210861</a>\n</li>'),(2071,'Behavioral treatment for deficits of facial affect recognition in multiple sclerosis','behavioral-treatment-for-deficits-of-facial-affect-recognition-in-multiple-sclerosis','2022-04-12 21:45:50.113453',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A recent study by Kessler Foundation researchers demonstrated efficacy for the behavioral intervention, EMOPRINT, for treating deficits of facial recognition in individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS). The article, \"Emotional processing intervention (EMOPRINT): A blinded randomized control trial to treat facial affect recognition deficits in multiple sclerosis,\" was epublished on January 19, 2022, by Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders. The study is the first to provide Class I evidence supporting the efficacy of an intervention to treat these deficits in MS.</p><p>The authors are Helen M. Genova, PhD, Katie Lancaster, PhD, Zuzanna Myszko, Jimmy Morecraft, Jacqueline Leddy, Angela Smith, MA, Nancy Chiaravalloti, PhD, and Jean Lengenfelder, PhD, of Kessler Foundation.</p><p>Researchers compared 21 individuals with MS with 15 placebo controls in this double-blinded, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial of EMOPRINT, a five-week, 12-session behavioral intervention for teaching facial recognition of the six universal emotions -- happiness, sadness, fear, surprise, anger, and disgust. Participants underwent baseline and follow-up neuropsychological assessments of facial affect recognition, as well as assessments of quality of life and emotional functioning. At follow up, facial affect recognition skills significantly improved in the MS group compared with the placebo group.</p><p>The efficacy of EMOPRINT has important implications for individuals with MS, as well as for other populations that experience deficits of facial recognition, including autism, traumatic brain injury, and schizophrenia. Deficits in facial recognition, which are known to hinder social functioning, are often associated with mood disorders and reduced quality of life, according to lead author Dr. Genova, the Foundation\'s associate director of the Center for Autism Research and an expert in the study of social cognition.</p><p>\"Improving facial recognition may improve interpersonal relationships and lead to better outcomes at home and in the workplace,\" she added. \"The success of EMOPRINT in this MS study is an important first step toward the larger-scale, longer-term studies of social cognition we need to study these potential effects.\"</p><p>Funding: National Multiple Sclerosis Society (RG-1507-05353)</p>','2022-04-12 21:45:50.113453','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Kessler Foundation','A recent study has demonstrated efficacy for the behavioral intervention, EMOPRINT, for treating deficits of facial recognition in individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS). The study provides Class I evidence supporting the efficacy of an intervention to treat these deficits in MS.\n',1,27,'<li>Helen M. Genova, Katie Lancaster, Zuzanna Myszko, Jimmy Morecraft, Jacqueline Leddy, Angela Smith, Nancy Chiaravalloti, Jean Lengenfelder. <strong>Emotional processing intervention (EMOPRINT): A blinded randomized control trial to treat facial affect recognition deficits in multiple sclerosis</strong>. <em>Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders</em>, 2022; 59: 103536 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.msard.2022.103536\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.msard.2022.103536</a>\n</li>'),(2072,'Some see Antarctica as ‘last chance’ destination; for others, it’s a backdrop','some-see-antarctica-as-‘last-chance’-destination;-for-others,-it’s-a-backdrop','2022-04-12 21:45:56.175915',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">In a new study, researchers found a significant reason why many people travel to Antarctica is to socialize -- to celebrate anniversaries, honeymoons or to spend time with family for a holiday -- rather than because of a particular interest in the land and its wildlife.</p><p>The finding raises questions about the effectiveness of the conservation appeals and educational efforts for this emerging group of Antarctic tourists.</p><p>\"Some people go to Antarctica for learning and experience, some people go to fulfill a lifetime dream, and some people go there as an adventure -- they have been to many places, but they haven\'t been there,\" said study co-author Yu-Fai Leung, professor of parks, recreation and tourism management at North Carolina State University. \"The social bonding group\'s motivations were interesting. They didn\'t mention anything about penguins or seeing other wildlife as a principal motivation; they\'re going for a vacation, birthday or anniversary celebrations, and they chose Antarctica as the backdrop.\"</p><p>Researchers launched the pre-pandemic study on tourism to Antarctica as travel to the continent has grown and diversified. The pre-pandemic, 2019-2020 tourist season saw more than 74,000 travelers -- double the number of travelers seen five years prior. While tourism can be a tool to inspire people to become ambassadors for conservation for Antarctica -- a fragile ecosystem facing crumbling glaciers, invasive species, and wildlife diseases -- it also can create challenges.</p><p>\"During the last two decades, a lot of new, different activities have been introduced in Antarctica that are drawing the interest of a bunch of people,\" said the study\'s lead author Daniela Cajiao, a former visiting scholar at NC State and former graduate student at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. \"There are also new ways of traveling there. This is diversifying how you can access Antarctica, but also the profile of the tourists who visit.\"</p><p>To understand tourists\' motivations, researchers surveyed people before and after they traveled by ship or airplane to Antarctica during the 2019-20 season. They found four main motivations for tourists traveling to Antarctica: experience and learning (31%), social bonding (28%), adventure (23%), or to take a trip of a lifetime (17.5%).</p><p>They observed people in the \"social bonding\" and \"trip of a lifetime\" groups who saw Antarctica as a last-chance tourism destination; a finding that researchers have also documented with other sites endangered by climate change, like the Great Barrier Reef and the Arctic.</p><p>\"Now that we have more people traveling to Antarctica for adventure or social bonding, how do we think about communicating with these tourists?\" Cajiao said. \"They may not want to attend all lectures. We need to think about how we can better deliver conservation and environmental messages so that any changes in people\'s environmental concerns or behaviors last in the long term.\"</p><p>When they analyzed whether tourists in certain groups were more or less likely to have learned something from the trip -- or perceived they learned something -- they found tourists in the \"trip of a lifetime\" group were more likely to have higher perceptions of learning. Tourists in the \"experience and learning\" group had the highest overall average score for actual learning.</p><p>Surprisingly, they also found there was a relationship between tourists\' perception of how much they learned, and their intentions to change their environmental behaviors.</p><p>\"We found that it\'s not just about whether you actually learned facts or lessons about Antarctica, the continent, or the ecosystem,\" Leung said. \"It\'s also about how much you feel you learned. This suggests that perception means a lot to people; it\'s part of the experience.</p><p>\"If you feel you got something from the learning experience, then it will more likely change you and what you do after the trip. That has important implications for educators, communicators and tour operators.\"</p><p>Researchers said getting a large or representative sample on Antarctic tourists is extremely difficult, and this study was no exception. They want to extend their study to continue to examine tourist types and relationships.</p><p>They also said they want to study actual behavior changes in future work, as well as look at Antarctic tourism after the pandemic slowdowns and closures. Leung said that while tourism may not have full recovered to pre-pandemic levels yet, they expect it will.</p><p>\"We are curious to see how this shifts again after COVID,\" Cajiao said. \"Maybe people see the world a little bit differently.\"</p><p>The study, \"Tourists\' motivations, learning and trip satisfaction facilitate pro-environmental outcomes of the Antarctic tourist experience,\" was published in the <em>Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism.</em> Co-authors included Lincoln Larson of NC State and Pablo Tejedo and Javier Benayas from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. The study was funded by the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) as part of the Fellowship Program for early-career researchers awarded in 2019-2020 to support Cajiao\'s scholarly visit to NC State.</p>','2022-04-12 21:45:56.175915','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'North Carolina State University','Travel to nature-based destinations to socialize -- to celebrate anniversaries, honeymoons or to spend time with family for a holiday -- is a growing trend in tourism, and it was a significant motivator for travel to Antarctica before the pandemic, researchers found in recent study.\n',1,27,'<li>Daniela Cajiao, Yu-Fai Leung, Lincoln R. Larson, Pablo Tejedo, Javier Benayas. <strong>Tourists’ motivations, learning, and trip satisfaction facilitate pro-environmental outcomes of the Antarctic tourist experience</strong>. <em>Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism</em>, 2022; 37: 100454 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jort.2021.100454\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.jort.2021.100454</a>\n</li>'),(2073,'How mussels maintain adhesion underwater','how-mussels-maintain-adhesion-underwater','2022-04-12 21:45:57.957126',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Bathroom accessories mounted on tile walls often fall off if not mounted correctly. This is because the moisture in the bathroom weakens the surface adhesion. Conversely, mussels boast amazing adhesion as they stick firmly to rocks even underwater. Although studies are being conducted to utilize these mussel adhesive proteins (MAPs) as an adhesive, its vulnerability to oxidation has made it difficult to fully recreate their underwater strength.</p><p>Recently, a POSTECH research team led by Professor Hyung Joon Cha, Dr. Mincheol Shin, and Ph.D. candidate Taehee Yoon (Department of Chemical Engineering) has verified the secret to the strong surface adhesion of mussel adhesive proteins (MAPs) even in an environment that causes oxidation. These findings were recently published in the international journal <em>Langmuir</em>.</p><p>MAP is gaining attention as a biomedical material used as a bioadhesive or a drug delivery system as it is nature-derived and harmless to the body. However, there was a limitation in that Dopa, a major component of the mussel adhesive protein, is easily oxidized which leads to weakening of the surface adhesion.</p><p>The research team focused on the fact that among the surface proteins of mussels, cysteine-rich proteins are involved in oxidation and reduction. When Dopa was oxidized to Dopa quinone with weakened adhesion, the research team added protein type 6 (fp-6) that contains cysteine, which changes the Dopa quinone into △Dopa. △Dopa is a tautomerof Dopa quinone and has a very strong surface adhesion like Dopa.</p><p>The research team also verified that when △Dopa is formed in the protein, it can have a stronger surface adhesion than Dopa.</p><p>This study is the first study to verify that the fp-6 shifts the tautomer equilibrium of oxidized Dopa to make mussels stick strongly to surfaces even in the oxidative underwater conditions. Applying these findings to the Dopa-based underwater adhesive can increase its surface adhesion.</p><p>Professor Hyung Joon Cha explained, \"We have verified for the first time that the cysteine-rich surface protein, conventionally known to block oxidation of Dopa, also promotes the change into △Dopa, which helps to maintain the adhesion in mussels even in oxidative underwater environments.\"</p><p>This study was conducted with the support from the Basic Research Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea.</p>','2022-04-12 21:45:57.957126','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Pohang University of Science & Technology (POSTECH)','A research team lrevives surface adhesion in proteins by adding cysteine-rich protein of mussels. Adding cysteine-rich protein to conventional underwater adhesives will increase their adhesion.\n',1,51,'<li>Mincheol Shin, Taehee Yoon, Byeongseon Yang, Hyung Joon Cha. <strong>Thiol-Rich fp-6 Controls the Tautomer Equilibrium of Oxidized Dopa in Interfacial Mussel Foot Proteins</strong>. <em>Langmuir</em>, 2022; 38 (11): 3446 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c03239\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c03239</a>\n</li>'),(2074,'Maladaptive daydreaming may be a better diagnosis for some than ADHD, study finds','maladaptive-daydreaming-may-be-a-better-diagnosis-for-some-than-adhd,-study-finds','2022-04-12 21:46:07.644369',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Maladaptive daydreaming (MD) may be a better diagnosis for some people than ADHD, according to a new study by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers, in collaboration with the University of Haifa. MD is a condition whereby people slip into involved highly detailed and realistic daydreams that can last hours at the cost of normal functioning. It has not yet been recognized as a formal psychiatric syndrome. However, Dr. Nirit Soffer-Dudek of the Consciousness and Psychopathology Laboratory in the Department of Psychology at BGU is one of the foremost experts on the condition and is hoping to get MD added to the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM VI), by promoting rigorous research on the subject.</p><p>\"Some individuals who become addicted to their fanciful daydreams experience great difficulty in concentrating and focusing their attention on academic and vocational tasks, yet they find that an ADHD diagnosis and the subsequent treatment plan does not necessarily help them. Formally classifying MD as a mental disorder would enable psychological practitioners to better assist many of their patients,\" says Dr. Soffer-Dudek.</p><p>Previous studies had found high levels of ADHD in those also presenting with MD, thereby raising the question of whether MD was separate from ADHD. In the current study, published recently in the <em>Journal of Clinical Psychology</em>, doctoral candidate Ms. Nitzan Theodor-Katz, together with Dr. Soffer-Dudek and their colleagues from the University of Haifa, assessed 83 adults diagnosed with ADHD for inattention symptoms, MD, depression, loneliness, and self-esteem. Of those, about 20% met the proposed diagnostic criteria for MD, with significantly higher rates of depression, loneliness, and lowered self-esteem, compared to those with ADHD that did not meet criteria for MD.</p><p>\"Our findings suggest that there is a subgroup of those diagnosed with ADHD who would benefit more from a diagnosis of MD,\" says Dr. Soffer-Dudek.</p><p>Additional researchers include Prof. Eli Somer and Dr. Rinatya Maaravi Hesseg of the University of Haifa.</p>','2022-04-12 21:46:07.644369','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Ben-Gurion University of the Negev','Maladaptive daydreaming (MD) may be a better diagnosis for some people than ADHD, according to a new study. MD is a condition whereby people slip into involved highly detailed and realistic daydreams that can last hours at the cost of normal functioning.\n',1,39,'<li>Nitzan Theodor‐Katz, Eli Somer, Rinatya M. Hesseg, Nirit Soffer‐Dudek. <strong>Could immersive daydreaming underlie a deficit in attention? The prevalence and characteristics of maladaptive daydreaming in individuals with attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder</strong>. <em>Journal of Clinical Psychology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jclp.23355\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/jclp.23355</a>\n</li>'),(2075,'Global estimates of headaches suggest disorder impacts over 50 percent of the population','global-estimates-of-headaches-suggest-disorder-impacts-over-50-percent-of-the-population','2022-04-12 21:58:37.853875',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A new review of the evidence suggests 52% of the global population are affected by a headache disorder every year, with 14% reporting migraines. The review is published in <em>The Journal of Headache and Pain</em>.</p><p>Headaches are one of the most prevalent and disabling conditions worldwide. However, studies of headache prevalence can vary greatly in their methods and samples, which may impact how the global rates of headaches are estimated.</p><p>Authors from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology reviewed 357 publications from between 1961 and the end of 2020 to estimate the global prevalence of headaches. The majority of publications considered in the review reported on adults between 20 and 65, but some also included adolescents and children down to 5, and elderly people above 65. Building on a previous report from 2007, Lars Jacob Stovner and colleagues also measured the differences in methods across the studies they reviewed. They modelled these differences in methods and how they are associated with estimates in headache prevalence. Most studies reported on headache prevalence during the past year. However, some studies reported on headache prevalence across the whole lifetime and some for much shorter periods, including instances of headache within the last day.</p><p>Based on the 357 publications reviewed, the authors estimate that 52% of the global population have experienced a headache disorder within a given year, with 14% reporting a migraine, 26% reporting a tension-type headache and 4.6% reporting a headache for 15 or more days per month. From the 12 studies that reported on headache during the last day, the authors estimate that 15.8% of the world\'s population have a headache on any given day, and almost half of those individuals report a migraine (7%).</p><p>Lars Jacob Stovner, lead author, said: \"We found that the prevalence of headache disorders remains high worldwide and the burden of different types may impact many. We should endeavour to reduce this burden through prevention and better treatment. To measure the effect of such efforts, we must be able to monitor prevalence and burden in societies. Our study helps us understand how to improve our methods.\"</p><p>All types of headache were more common in females than males, most markedly for migraines (17% in females compared to 8.6% in males) and headaches for 15 or more days per month (6% in females compared to 2.9% in males).</p><p>The authors also investigated the association between study methods and headache estimates. Some of the different measures the authors looked at, such as screening questions, sample size, publication year, and how diagnostic criteria are applied, amongst others, explained 29.9% of the variation in migraine estimates and less for other headache disorders. This suggests that there may be other methodological factors accounting for the greater variations across the studies. When modelling the variation in migraine prevalence estimates, the publication year of studies was associated to 6% of the variation in headache estimates, with higher prevalence estimates associated with more recent publication. The publication year was not associated with other headache types. The authors propose that this might reflect a real change with migraines becoming more common over the last three to four decades. Alternatively, this finding could suggest improved methods of diagnosing migraines.</p><p>The authors also acknowledge that the majority of publications they reviewed came from high-income countries with good healthcare systems so this may not reflect every country. Further investigation into middle and low-income countries would help present a more accurate global estimate. However, to obtain data from as many countries as possible, the authors did use a broad range of studies that sampled participants outside of clinical settings, such as employees of a company, university students and hospital staff, amongst others.</p><p>Lars Jacob Stovner said: \"Compared to our previous report and global estimates, the data does suggest that headaches and migraines rates may be increasing. However, given that we could explain only 30% or less of the variation in headache estimates with the measures we looked at, it would be premature to conclude headaches are definitively increasing. What is clear is that overall, headache disorders are highly prevalent worldwide and can be a high burden. It may also be of interest in future to analyse the different causes of headaches that varied across groups to target prevention and treatment more effectively.\"</p><p>The authors conclude that this study provides a baseline in how to estimate headache rates across the world and future research could build on this to improve methods for measuring the success of interventions and treatment.</p>','2022-04-12 21:58:37.853875','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'BMC (BioMed Central)','A new review of the evidence suggests 52 percent of the global population are affected by a headache disorder every year, with 14 percent reporting migraines.\n',1,27,'<li>Lars Jacob Stovner, Knut Hagen, Mattias Linde, Timothy J. Steiner. <strong>The global prevalence of headache: an update, with analysis of the influences of methodological factors on prevalence estimates</strong>. <em>The Journal of Headache and Pain</em>, 2022; 23 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s10194-022-01402-2\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1186/s10194-022-01402-2</a>\n</li>'),(2076,'Collision hotspots for migrating birds revealed in new study','collision-hotspots-for-migrating-birds-revealed-in-new-study','2022-04-12 21:58:43.650587',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">New research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) highlights the areas in Europe and North Africa where the construction of wind turbines or power lines is likely to increase the risk of death for migrating birds.</p><p>The study used GPS location data from 65 bird tracking studies to understand where they fly more frequently at danger height -- defined as 10-60 metres above ground for power lines and 15-135 metres for wind turbines. This allowed the team to identify the areas where these birds would be more sensitive to onshore wind turbine or power line development.</p><p>Resulting vulnerability maps reveal that the collision hotspots are particularly concentrated within important migration routes, along coastlines and near breeding locations. These include the Western Mediterranean coast of France, Southern Spain and the Moroccan Coast -- such as around the Strait of Gibraltar -- Eastern Romania, the Sinai Peninsula and the Baltic coast of Germany.</p><p>The GPS data collected related to 1,454 birds from 27 species, mostly large soaring ones such as white storks. Exposure to risk varied across the species, with the Eurasian spoonbill, European eagle owl, whooper swan, Iberian imperial eagle and white stork among those flying consistently at heights where they risk collision.</p><p>The study, published today in the <em>Journal of Applied Ecology</em>, involved an international team of researchers from 15 countries and organisations including the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and the RSPB in the UK.</p><p>The authors say development of new wind turbines and transmission power lines should be minimised in these high sensitivity areas, and any developments which do occur will likely need to be accompanied by measures to reduce the risk to birds.</p><p>Lead author Jethro Gauld, a PhD researcher in UEA\'s School of Environmental Sciences, said, it was thought to be the first time GPS tracking data from multiple species had been used in this way.</p><p>\"We know from previous research that there are many more suitable locations to build wind turbines than we need in order to meet our clean energy targets up to 2050,\" said Mr Gauld.</p><p>\"If we can do a better job of assessing risks to biodiversity, such as collision risk for birds, into the planning process at an early stage we can help limit the impact of these developments on wildlife while still achieving our climate targets.</p><p>\"Our results will help achieve this and in doing so provide better outcomes for people and wildlife.\"</p><p>Dr Aldina Franco, the project supervisor at UEA,said: \"This collaborative study including research from 51 researchers and 15 countries is a great example of where working together can start to answer some of the big questions around the threats that African-Eurasian migrants face on their long annual journeys.\"</p><p>Phil Atkinson, project supervisorfrom the BTO, said: \"The use of high precision GPS devices allow us to study birds\' movements in huge detail. Birds do not respect country boundaries and power lines and wind turbines impact migratory birds across their annual cycle, especially for large soaring birds such as raptors and storks.\"</p><p>The researchers combined the sensitivity data with the locations of existing onshore wind farms and power lines to identify where the vulnerability hotspots are for these birds, for example the areas where they are already experiencing high risk of collision due to the presence of wind turbines or power lines.</p><p>Mr Gauld added: \"Our maps can also help target measures to reduce risks where previously built developments are already causing problems. They highlight the areas where existing energy infrastructure is already providing a source of collision risk for these birds. It is therefore a key conservation priority for additional measures to reduce collision risk are implemented in these vulnerability hotspots.</p><p>\"Such measures can include marking power lines to make them more visible and implementing systems to allow shutdown of wind turbines during periods of high bird traffic.\"</p><p>The authors acknowledge that transition to zero carbon energy is essential to avoid runaway climate change. European onshore wind energy capacity is projected to grow nearly fourfold by 2050, and countries in the Middle East and North Africa, such as Morocco and Tunisia, also have targets to increase the share of electricity supply from onshore wind.</p><p>Alongside this there will be a huge investment in new high voltage power lines, with an estimated fivefold increase in transmission capacity required between 2010 and 2050.</p><p>However, they warn the expansion of renewable energy infrastructure required to achieve this poses a challenge to wildlife conservation due to collision and electrocution risks, particularly for birds.</p><p>The researchers hope the study provides a method which other researchers and practitioners involved in environmental impact assessments for renewables can replicate as more data from tracking studies becomes available.</p><p>Jethro Gauld receives funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) as part of the NEXUSS Centre for Doctoral Training.</p>','2022-04-12 21:58:43.650587','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of East Anglia','New research highlights the areas in Europe and North Africa where the construction of wind turbines or power lines is likely to increase the risk of death for migrating birds.\n',1,43,'<li>Jethro G. Gauld, João P. Silva, Philip W. Atkinson, Paul Record, Marta Acácio, Volen Arkumarev, Julio Blas, Willem Bouten, Niall Burton, Inês Catry, Jocelyn Champagnon, Gary D. Clewley, Mindaugas Dagys, Olivier Duriez, Klaus‐Michael Exo, Wolfgang Fiedler, Andrea Flack, Guilad Friedemann, Johannes Fritz, Clara Garcia‐Ripolles, Stefan Garthe, Dimitri Giunchi, Atanas Grozdanov, Roi Harel, Elizabeth M. Humphreys, René Janssen, Andrea Kölzsch, Olga Kulikova, Thomas K. Lameris, Pascual López‐López, Elizabeth A. Masden, Flavio Monti, Ran Nathan, Stoyan Nikolov, Steffen Oppel, Hristo Peshev, Louis Phipps, Ivan Pokrovsky, Viola H. Ross‐Smith, Victoria Saravia, Emily S. Scragg, Andrea Sforzi, Emilian Stoynov, Chris Thaxter, Wouter Van Steelant, Mariëlle Toor, Bernd Vorneweg, Jonas Waldenström, Martin Wikelski, Ramūnas Žydelis, Aldina M. A. Franco. <strong>Hotspots in the grid: Avian sensitivity and vulnerability to collision risk from energy infrastructure interactions in Europe and North Africa</strong>. <em>Journal of Applied Ecology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14160\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1111/1365-2664.14160</a>\n</li>'),(2077,'You\'ve heard of water droughts. Could \'energy\' droughts be next?','you\'ve-heard-of-water-droughts.-could-\'energy\'-droughts-be-next?','2022-04-12 23:50:51.570290',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Renewable energy prices have fallen by more than 70 percent in the last decade, driving more Americans to abandon fossil fuels for greener, less-polluting energy sources. But as wind and solar power continue to make inroads, grid operators may have to plan for large swings in availability.</p><p>The warning comes from Upmanu Lall, a professor at Columbia Engineering and the Columbia Climate School who has recently turned his sights from sustainable water use to sustainable renewables in the push toward net-zero carbon emissions.</p><p>\"Designers of renewable energy systems will need to pay attention to changing wind and solar patterns over weeks, months, and years, the way water managers do,\" he said. \"You won\'t be able to manage variability like this with batteries. You\'ll need more capacity.\"</p><p>In a new modeling study in the journal <em>Patterns</em>, Lall and Columbia PhD student Yash Amonkar, show that solar and wind potential vary widely over days and weeks, not to mention months to years. They focused on Texas, which leads the country in generating electricity from wind power and is the fifth-largest solar producer. Texas also boasts a self-contained grid that\'s as big as many countries\', said Lall, making it an ideal laboratory for charting the promise and peril of renewable energy systems.</p><p>Drawing on 70 years of historic wind and solar-power data, the researchers built an AI model to predict the probability of a network-scale \"drought,\" when daily production of renewables fell below a target threshold. Under a threshold set at the 30th percentile, when roughly a third of all days are low-production days, the researchers found that Texas could face a daily energy drought for up to four months straight.</p><p>Batteries would be unable to compensate for a drought of this length, said Lall, and if the system relied on solar energy alone, the drought could be expected to last twice as long -- for eight months. \"These findings suggest that energy planners will have to consider alternate ways of storing or generating electricity, or dramatically increasing the capacity of their renewable systems,\" he said.</p><p><strong>Anticipating Future \'Energy\' Droughts -- in Texas, and Across the Continental United States</strong></p><p>The research began six years ago, when Lall and a former graduate student, David Farnham, examined wind and solar variability at eight U.S. airports, where weather records tend to be longer and more detailed. They wanted to see how much variation could be expected under a hypothetical 100% renewable-energy grid.</p><p>The results, which Farnham published in his PhD thesis, weren\'t a surprise. Farnham and Lall found that solar and wind potential, like rainfall, is highly variable based on the time of year and the place where wind turbines and solar panels have been sited. Across eight cities, they found that renewable energy potential rose and fell from the long-term average by as much as a third in some seasons.</p><p>\"We coined the term \'energy\' droughts since a 10-year cycle with this much variation from the long-term average would be seen as a major drought,\" said Lall. \"That was the beginning of the energy drought work.\"</p><p>In the current study, Lall chose to zoom in on Texas, a state well-endowed with both sun and wind. Lall and Amonkar found that persistent renewable energy droughts could last as long as a year even if solar and wind generators were spread across the entire state. The conclusion, Lall said, is that renewables face a storage problem that can only realistically be solved by adding additional capacity or sources of energy.</p><p>\"In a fully renewable world, we would need to develop nuclear fuel or hydrogen fuel, or carbon recycling, or add much more capacity for generating renewables, if we want to avoid burning fossil fuels,\" he said.</p><p>In times of low rainfall, water managers keep fresh water flowing through the spigot by tapping municipal reservoirs or underground aquifers. Solar and wind energy systems have no equivalent backup. The batteries used to store excess solar and wind power on exceptionally bright and gusty days hold a charge for only a few hours, and at most, a few days. Hydropower plants provide a potential buffer, said Lall, but not for long enough to carry the system through an extended dry spell of intermittent sun and wind.</p><p>\"We won\'t solve the problem by building a larger network,\" he said. \"Electric grid operators have a target of 99.99% reliability while water managers strive for 90 percent reliability. You can see what a challenging game this will be for the energy industry, and just how valuable seasonal and longer forecasts could be.\"</p><p>In the next phase of research, Lall will work with Columbia Engineering professors Vijay Modi and Bolun Xu to see if they can predict both energy droughts and \"floods,\" when the system generates a surplus of renewables. Armed with these projections, they hope to predict the rise and fall of energy prices.</p>','2022-04-12 23:50:51.570290','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Columbia University','Drawing on 70 years of historic wind and solar-power data, researchers built an AI model to predict the probability of a network-scale \'drought,\' when daily production of renewables fell below a target threshold. Under a threshold set at the 30th percentile, when roughly a third of all days are low-production days, the researchers found that Texas could face a daily energy drought for up to four months straight. Batteries would be unable to compensate for a drought of this length, and if the system relied on solar energy alone, the drought could be expected to last twice as long -- for eight months.\n',1,210,'<li>Yash Amonkar, David J. Farnham, Upmanu Lall. <strong>A k-nearest neighbor space-time simulator with applications to large-scale wind and solar power modeling</strong>. <em>Patterns</em>, 2022; 3 (3): 100454 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.patter.2022.100454\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.patter.2022.100454</a>\n</li>'),(2078,'Epigenetic regulator explains why some lung cancer patients become resistant to common therapeutics','epigenetic-regulator-explains-why-some-lung-cancer-patients-become-resistant-to-common-therapeutics','2022-04-12 23:50:57.007645',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Doctors typically treat people with nonsmall cell lung cancer, a prevalent and typically incurable type of cancer that makes up 80%-85% of lung cancers, with tyrosine kinase inhibitors, specifically epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors. About 15%-20% of these patients will become resistant to these standard treatments, resulting in their eventual death.</p><p>Researchers understand part of the reason for this: The cells develop a mutation that leads to resistance. But about half of those resistant patients remain unexplained.</p><p>Andrea Kasinski, a cellular biologist, and her lab have discovered that some of the explanation is epigenetic. When cells lose the histone methyltransferase (KMT5C), genes that KMT5C were repressing instead become expressed, leading to resistance to epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors. This understanding lays the groundwork for future therapeutics and gives researchers and doctors a deeper insight into the biology and progression of cancers, especially the role that epigenetic-modifying proteins play in drug resistance, a phenomenon that is not well understood.</p><p>\"For the majority of genes that contribute to cancer, we\'re not sure how they work yet,\" Kasinski said. \"And for many, we don\'t have a way to therapeutically target them. Research like this, that helps us understand how those genes work to determine cancer outcomes, adds to our understanding of the network. This knowledge will ultimately lead us to better therapeutics.\"</p><p><strong>Purdue professor\'s expertise</strong></p><p>Kasinski is an expert in how epigenetic factors, especially noncoding RNAs, affect cancer outcomes, including resistance to therapeutics. She is the William and Patty Miller Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in Purdue\'s College of Science, as well as a researcher studying cell identity and signaling with the Purdue Center for Cancer Research. She is an expert in target discovery and characterization, delivery and formulations and <em>in vivo</em> disease models with the Purdue Institute for Drug Discovery.</p><p><strong>Brief summary of methods</strong></p><p>Kasinski and her team identified the KMT5C gene using a global CRISPR-Cas9 screen after challenging the cells with an epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitor. They selected cells that grew out and then identified the mutations, finding that KMT5C was the most significantly mutated gene in the screen. They validated the results in other cell lines using genetic knockdown and chemical inhibition of KMT5C, leading them to discover that the gene MET, a prominent cancer gene, was upregulated. They used chromatin immunoprecipitation with an antibody for the methylation mark made by KMT5C to determine that an RNA that enhances MET expression is normally methylated and, thus, not expressed. When cells lose KMT5C, the RNA is expressed, leading to MET expression and the subsequent resistance to therapeutics.</p><p>This study was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, as well as grants from the Purdue Research Foundation, the Purdue Center for Cancer Research and Purdue University.</p>','2022-04-12 23:50:57.007645','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Purdue University','Cellular biologists discover why some patients become resistant to standard treatments for nonsmall cell lung cancer.\n',1,41,'<li>Arpita S. Pal, Alejandra Agredo, Nadia A. Lanman, Jihye Son, Ikjot Singh Sohal, Manvir Bains, Chennan Li, Jenna Clingerman, Kayla Gates, Andrea L. Kasinski. <strong>Loss of KMT5C Promotes EGFR Inhibitor Resistance in NSCLC via LINC01510-Mediated Upregulation of MET</strong>. <em>Cancer Research</em>, 2022; OF1 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-20-0821\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-20-0821</a>\n</li>'),(2079,'Scientists find \'knob\' to control magnetic behavior in quantum material','scientists-find-\'knob\'-to-control-magnetic-behavior-in-quantum-material','2022-04-12 23:50:59.085737',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Magnetism, one of the oldest technologies known to humans, is at the forefront of new-age materials that could enable next-generation lossless electronics and quantum computers. Researchers led by Penn State and the university of California, San Diego have discovered a new \'knob\' to control the magnetic behavior of one promising quantum material, and the findings could pave the way toward novel, efficient and ultra-fast devices.</p><p>\"The unique quantum mechanical make-up of this material -- manganese bismuth telluride -- allows it to carry lossless electrical currents, something of tremendous technological interest,\" said Hari Padmanabhan, who led the research as a graduate student at Penn State. \"What makes this material especially intriguing is that this behavior is deeply connected to its magnetic properties. So, a knob to control magnetism in this material could also efficiently control these lossless currents.\"</p><p>Manganese bismuth telluride, a 2D material made of atomically thin stacked layers, is an example of a topological insulator, exotic materials that simultaneously can be insulators and conductors of electricity, the scientists said. Importantly, because this material is also magnetic, the currents conducted around its edges could be lossless, meaning they do not lose energy in the form of heat. Finding a way to tune the weak magnetic bonds between the layers of the material could unlock these functions.</p><p>Tiny vibrations of atoms, or phonons, in the material may be one way to achieve this, the scientists reported April 8 in the journal <em>Nature Communications</em>.</p><p>\"Phonons are tiny atomic wiggles -- atoms dancing together in various patterns, present in all materials,\" Padmanabhan said. \"We show that these atomic wiggles can potentially function as a knob to tune the magnetic bonding between the atomic layers in manganese bismuth telluride.\"</p><p>The scientists at Penn State studied the material using a technique called magneto-optical spectroscopy -- shooting a laser onto a sample of the material and measuring the color and intensity of the reflected light, which carries information on the atomic vibrations. The team observed how the vibrations changed as they altered the temperature and magnetic field.</p><p>As they altered the magnetic field, the scientists observed changes in the intensity of the phonons. This effect is due to the phonons influencing the weak inter-layer magnetic bonding, the scientists said.</p><p>\"Using temperature and magnetic field to vary the magnetic structure of the material -- much like using a refrigerator magnet to magnetize a needle compass -- we found that the phonon intensities were strongly correlated with the magnetic structure,\" said Maxwell Poore, graduate student at UC San Diego, and co-author of the study. \"Pairing these findings with theoretical calculations, we inferred that these atomic vibrations modify the magnetic bonding across layers of this material.\"</p><p>Scientists at UC San Diego conducted experiments to track these atomic vibrations in real time. The phonons oscillate faster than a trillion times a second, many times faster than modern computer chips, the scientists said. A 3.5 gigahertz computer processor, for example, operates at a frequency of 3.5 billion times per second.</p><p>\"What was beautiful about this result was that we studied the material using different complementary experimental methods at different institutions and they all remarkably converged to the same picture,\" said Peter Kim, graduate student at UC San Diego, and co-author of the paper.</p><p>Further research is needed to directly use the magnetic knob, the scientists said. But if that can be achieved, it could lead to ultra-fast devices that can efficiently and reversibly control lossless currents.</p><p>\"A major challenge in making faster, more powerful electronic processors is that they heat up,\" said Venkatraman Gopalan, professor of materials science and engineering and physics at Penn State, Padmanabhan\'s former adviser, and co-author of the paper. \"Heating wastes energy. If we could find efficient ways to control materials that host lossless currents, that would potentially allow us to deploy them in future energy-efficient electronic devices.\"</p><p>Other Penn State researchers were Vladimir Stoica, associate research professor, Huaiyu \"Hugo\" Wang, graduate student, and Maxwell Wetherington, staff scientist, Materials Research Institute and Department of Materials Science and Engineering; and Seng Huat Lee, assistant research professor, and Zhiqiang Mao, professor, 2D Crystal Consortium and Department of Physics.</p><p>Also contributing were James Rondinelli, professor, Danilo Puggioni, research assistant professor, Mingqiang Gu, postdoctoral scholar, and Nathan Koocher, graduate student, Northwestern University; Xijie Wang, Xiaozhe Shen, and Alexander Reid, staff scientists, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory; Richard Averitt, professor, University of California, San Diego; Richard Schaller, staff scientist, Argonne National Laboratory; and Aaron Lindenberg, associate professor, Stanford University.</p><p>The U.S. Department of Energy, National Science Foundation and Army Research Office provided funding for this research.</p>','2022-04-12 23:50:59.085737','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Penn State','Magnetism, one of the oldest technologies known to humans, is at the forefront of new-age materials that could enable next-generation lossless electronics and quantum computers. Researchers have discovered a new \'knob\' to control the magnetic behavior of one promising quantum material, and the findings could pave the way toward novel, efficient and ultra-fast devices.\n',1,61,'<li>Hari Padmanabhan, Maxwell Poore, Peter K. Kim, Nathan Z. Koocher, Vladimir A. Stoica, Danilo Puggioni, Huaiyu (Hugo) Wang, Xiaozhe Shen, Alexander H. Reid, Mingqiang Gu, Maxwell Wetherington, Seng Huat Lee, Richard D. Schaller, Zhiqiang Mao, Aaron M. Lindenberg, Xijie Wang, James M. Rondinelli, Richard D. Averitt, Venkatraman Gopalan. <strong>Interlayer magnetophononic coupling in MnBi2Te4</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29545-5\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-29545-5</a>\n</li>'),(2080,'Researchers generate high-quality quantum light with modular waveguide device','researchers-generate-high-quality-quantum-light-with-modular-waveguide-device','2022-04-12 23:51:03.507517',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">For the first time, researchers have successfully generated strongly nonclassical light using a modular waveguide-based light source. The achievement represents a crucial step toward creating faster and more practical optical quantum computers.</p><p>\"Our goal is to dramatically improve information processing by developing faster quantum computers that can perform any type of computation without errors,\" said research team member Kan Takase from the University of Tokyo. \"Although there are several ways to create a quantum computer, light-based approaches are promising because the information processor can operate at room temperature and the computing scale can be easily expanded.\"</p><p>In the Optica Publishing Group journal <em>Optics Express</em>, a multi-institutional team of researchers from Japan describe the waveguide optical parametric amplifier (OPA) module they created for quantum experiments. Combining this device with a specially designed photon detector allowed them to generate a state of light known as Schrödinger cat, which is a superposition of coherent states.</p><p>\"Our method for generating quantum light can be used to increase the computing power of quantum computers and to make the information processer more compact,\" said Takase. \"Our approach outperforms conventional methods, and the modular waveguide OPA is easy to operate and integrate into quantum computers.\"</p><p><strong>Generating strongly nonclassical light</strong></p><p>Continuous wave squeezed light is used to generate the various quantum states necessary to perform quantum computing. For the best computing performance, the squeezed light source must exhibit very low levels of light loss and be broadband, meaning it includes a wide range of frequencies.</p><p>\"We want to increase the clock frequency of optical quantum computers, which can, in principle, achieve Terahertz frequencies,\" said Takase. \"Higher clock frequencies enable faster execution of computational tasks and allow the delay lines in the optical circuits to be shortened. This makes optical quantum computers more compact while also making it easier to develop and stabilize the overall system.\"</p><p>OPAs use nonlinear optical crystals to generate squeezed light, but conventional OPAs don\'t generate the quantum light with the properties necessary for faster quantum computing. To overcome this challenge, researchers from the University of Tokyo and NTT Corporation developed an OPA based on a waveguide-type device that achieves high efficiency by confining light to a narrow crystal.</p><p>By carefully designing the waveguide and manufacturing it with precision processing, they were able to create an OPA device with much smaller propagation loss than conventional devices. It can also be modularized for use in various experiments with quantum technologies. <strong>Designing the right detector</strong></p><p>The OPA device was designed to create squeezed light at telecommunications wavelengths, a wavelength region that tends to exhibit low losses. To complete the system, researchers needed a high-performance photon detector that worked at telecom wavelengths. However, standard photon detectors based on semiconductors don\'t meet the performance requirements for this application.</p><p>Thus, researchers from University of Tokyo and National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) developed a detector designed specifically for quantum optics. The new superconducting nanostrip photon detector (SNSPD) uses superconductivity technology to detect photons.</p><p>\"We combined our new waveguide OPA with this photon detector to generate a highly non-classical -- or quantum -- state of light called Schrödinger cat,\" said Takase. \"Generating this state, which is difficult with conventional, low-efficiency waveguide OPAs, confirms the high performance of our waveguide OPA and opens the possibility of using this device for a wide range of quantum experiments.\"</p><p>The researchers are now looking at how to combine high-speed measurement techniques with the new waveguide OPA to get closer to their goal of ultrafast optical quantum computing.</p>','2022-04-12 23:51:03.507517','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Optica','Researchers have successfully generated strongly nonclassical light using a modular waveguide-based light source. By combining a waveguide optical parametric amplifier (OPA) module created for quantum experiments and a specially designed photon detector, researchers were able to produce light in a superposition of coherent states. The achievement represents a crucial step toward creating faster and more practical optical quantum computers.\n',1,97,'<li>Kan Takase, Akito Kawasaki, Byung Kyu Jeong, Mamoru Endo, Takahiro Kashiwazaki, Takushi Kazama, Koji Enbutsu, Kei Watanabe, Takeshi Umeki, Shigehito Miki, Hirotaka Terai, Masahiro Yabuno, Fumihiro China, Warit Asavanant, Jun-ichi Yoshikawa, Akira Furusawa. <strong>Generation of Schrödinger cat states with Wigner negativity using a continuous-wave low-loss waveguide optical parametric amplifier</strong>. <em>Optics Express</em>, 2022; 30 (9): 14161 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.454123\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1364/OE.454123</a>\n</li>'),(2081,'Permanent birth control methods for women have up to six percent failure rates','permanent-birth-control-methods-for-women-have-up-to-six-percent-failure-rates','2022-04-12 23:51:07.226172',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Hysteroscopic sterilization, a nonincisional procedure, was found to be as effective as minimally invasive laparoscopic sterilization in preventing pregnancy, but both methods had higher than expected failure rates, according to a new study led by an investigator at Weill Cornell Medicine.</p><p>The comparative study, published April 12 in <em>Fertility and Sterility</em>, found that both methods had failure rates of five to six percent at 5 years post-procedure. Dr. Aileen Gariepy conducted the investigation while at Yale School of Medicine; she is now director of complex family planning in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine. Co-investigators included Dr. Eleanor Bimla Schwarz from the University of California, San Francisco and University of California, Davis, and Dr. Diana Zuckerman from the National Center for Health Research.</p><p>\"The rate we found is five to six times higher than the sterilization failure rate of one percent that\'s often cited by physicians when counseling patients,\" Dr. Gariepy said. The one percent figure, she noted, is based on decades-old data from the U.S. Collaborative Review of Sterilization study.</p><p>With 219 million women and their partners relying on female sterilization, considered a permanent way to prevent pregnancy, it is the most commonly used contraceptive method worldwide. In the United States, sterilization is more commonly used by women insured by Medicaid than those with private health insurance, according to researchers.</p><p>The goal of the study was to compare the effectiveness of hysteroscopic and laparoscopic sterilization procedures. For laparoscopic sterilization, a surgeon makes a small incision near the belly button and can use an array of methods to cut or close off the fallopian tubes.</p><p>Hysteroscopic sterilization uses a medical device known by the trade name Essure to block the fallopian tubes. The implanted metal coils generate scar tissue over time, which prevents pregnancy.</p><p>The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first approved Essure in 2002, with researchers reporting a cumulative pregnancy rate of zero from two studies that followed 197 women with Essure over two years.</p><p>Amidst increasing scrutiny from the FDA and questions about the device\'s effectiveness and safety, the manufacturer chose to pull Essure from the market in 2019, citing decreased sales. But questions remained for women who didn\'t experience problems and hadn\'t had the device removed.</p><p>\"Women and doctors want to know: \'Can I rely on this for pregnancy prevention?\" Dr. Gariepy said.</p><p>Noting that hysteroscopic sterilization had become increasingly common among Medicaid-insured women, Dr. Gariepy and her collaborators, including patient stakeholders, investigators from several academic institutions, and community partners across the country, looked at Medicaid claims for hysteroscopic and laparoscopic sterilizations performed in California between 2008 and 2014. They excluded postpartum sterilizations, which are conducted using a different approach.</p><p>\"Previous studies had looked at sterilization in women with commercial insurance, and their health outcomes are often different than someone with Medicaid,\" Dr. Gariepy said. \"It was important to look at the experiences of people with Medicaid and their real-world outcomes.\"</p><p>Using the Medicaid data, researchers identified 5,906 women who had undergone hysteroscopic and 23,965 who had undergone laparoscopic sterilization. The average age was 33.</p><p>\"At five years post-procedure, the cumulative rate of pregnancy was over 6 percent regardless of whether women received hysteroscopic or laparoscopic sterilization,\" the researchers wrote.</p><p>\"Women need to know the real risk of failure,\" Dr. Gariepy said, adding that the findings show a need for further study into whether particular surgical techniques, for example, have contributed to the higher-than-expected pregnancy rates.</p><p><em>Dr. Aileen Gariepy is an author for UpToDate and serves on the Board of Directors for the Society of Family Planning.</em></p>','2022-04-12 23:51:07.226172','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Weill Cornell Medicine','Hysteroscopic sterilization, a nonincisional procedure, was found to be as effective as minimally invasive laparoscopic sterilization in preventing pregnancy, but both methods had higher than expected failure rates, according to a new study.\n',1,7,'<li>Aileen M. Gariepy, Carrie Lewis, Diana Zuckerman, Daniel J. Tancredi, Eryn Murphy, Raegan McDonald-Mosley, Sarita Sonalkar, Mark Hathaway, Claudia Nunez-Eddy, Eleanor Bimla Schwarz. <strong>Comparative effectiveness of hysteroscopic and laparoscopic sterilization for women: a retrospective cohort study</strong>. <em>Fertility and Sterility</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2022.03.001\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.fertnstert.2022.03.001</a>\n</li>'),(2082,'Bioprinting for bone repair improved with genes','bioprinting-for-bone-repair-improved-with-genes','2022-04-12 23:51:09.601096',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Given enough time and energy, the body will heal, but when doctors or engineers intervene, the processes do not always proceed as planned because chemicals that control and facilitate the healing process are missing. Now, an international team of engineers is bioprinting bone along with two growth factor encoding genes that help incorporate the cells and heal defects in the skulls of rats.</p><p>\"Growth factors are essential for cell growth,\" said Ibrahim T. Ozbolat, associate professor of engineering science and mechanics. \"We use two different genes encoding two different growth factors. These growth factors help stem cells to migrate into the defect area and then help the progenitor cells to convert into bone.\"</p><p>The researchers used gene encoding PDGF-B, platelet derived-growth factor, which encourages cells to multiply and to migrate, and gene encoding BMP-2, bone morphogenetic protein, which improves bone regeneration. They delivered both genes using bioprinting.</p><p>\"We used a controlled co-delivery release of plasmids from a gene-activated matrix to promote bone repair,\" the researchers stated in the journal <em>Biomaterials</em>.</p><p>Ozbolat and his team embedded the DNA for the protein in plasmids -- ringlike loops of DNA that can transport genetic information. Once the DNA enters the progenitor cell, it begins to produce the appropriate proteins to enhance bone growth.</p><p>The two genes were printed during surgery onto a hole in the skull of a rat using a device very similar to an ink-jet printer. The mixture was created to release a burst of PDGF-B encoding gene in 10 days and a continuing release of BMP-2 encoding gene for five weeks.</p><p>The rats that received bioprinted genes with controlled release of BMP-2 encoding gene saw about 40% bone tissue creation and 90% bone coverage in six weeks compared to 10% new bone tissue and 25% bone coverage for rats with the same defect, but no treatment.</p><p>\"This method is better than simply dumping the growth factors,\" said Ozbolat. \"If we do that, the amounts of proteins are finite, but if we use gene therapy, the cells continue to produce the necessary growth factors.\"</p><p>Working with Ozbolat from Penn State were Kazim K. Moncal, graduate student in engineering science and mechanics; Gregory S. Lewis, assistant professor and Hwabok Wee, postdoctoral fellow both in orthopedics and rehabilitation; Kevin P. Godzik, undergraduate in biomedical engineering: and Elias Rizk, associate professor of neurosurgery.</p><p>Others contributing to the research include R. Seda Tigli Aydin, former Penn State postdoctoral fellow now at Bulen Ecevit University, Turkey; Dong N. Heo, former Penn State postdoctoral fellow now at the Kyung Hee University, South Korea; and Timothy M. Acri, former graduate researcher, and Aliasger K. Salem, Lyle and Sharon Bighley Endowed Chair &amp; Professor in Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Iowa.</p><p>The International Team for Implantology, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Osteology Foundation and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey supported this work.</p><p><strong>Story Source:</strong></p>','2022-04-12 23:51:09.601096','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Penn State','Given enough time and energy, the body will heal, but when doctors or engineers intervene, the processes do not always proceed as planned because chemicals that control and facilitate the healing process are missing. Now, an international team of engineers is bioprinting bone along with two growth factor encoding genes that help incorporate the cells and heal defects in the skulls of rats.\n',1,27,'<li>Kazim K. Moncal, R. Seda Tigli Aydın, Kevin P. Godzik, Timothy M. Acri, Dong N. Heo, Elias Rizk, Hwabok Wee, Gregory S. Lewis, Aliasger K. Salem, Ibrahim T. Ozbolat. <strong>Controlled Co-delivery of pPDGF-B and pBMP-2 from intraoperatively bioprinted bone constructs improves the repair of calvarial defects in rats</strong>. <em>Biomaterials</em>, 2022; 281: 121333 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2021.121333\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.biomaterials.2021.121333</a>\n</li>'),(2083,'Newly identified cell type could be the key to restoring damaged salivary glands','newly-identified-cell-type-could-be-the-key-to-restoring-damaged-salivary-glands','2022-04-12 23:51:13.991636',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Scientists at Scripps Research and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research have discovered a special type of cell that resides in salivary glands and is likely crucial for oral health.</p><p>As the researchers described in <em>Cell Reports</em> on April 12, 2022, the new type of salivary gland cell called \"ionocyte\" that works to maintain healthy concentrations of charged molecules -- ions -- of potassium, calcium, chlorine, and other electrolytes in saliva. The scientists also found that this type of ionocyte secretes a key growth factor (fibroblast growth factor 10, or FGF10), suggesting that it has a further role in the repair of salivary glands after injury.</p><p>\"These are unique cells, and we hope that by studying them we can develop better treatments for the many medical conditions that affect salivary glands and related glands such as tear glands,\" says study co-senior author Helen Makarenkova, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine at Scripps Research.</p><p>Salivary glands produce saliva, which makes it much easier for animals to swallow food. Saliva also contains enzymes that assist in digestion, antibodies and other immune elements to protect against infection, and finely tuned concentrations of different ions to maintain the overall health of teeth and oral tissues. Salivary glands can be damaged by cancer-related radiation therapy in the head and neck region and other medical conditions including autoimmune disorders.</p><p>\"Each year, millions of Americans are diagnosed with dry mouth conditions, whose precise causes are often unclear,\" says study co-first author Olivier Mauduit, PhD, a postdoctoral research associate in the Makarenkova lab.</p><p>The team, together with co-senior author Matthew Hoffman, PhD, of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, focused first on a growth factor protein called FGF10, which is important for the early development of salivary glands, and is suspected to have a maintenance and repair function in adult salivary glands. The scientists\' aim was to discover the cell type that produces FGF10 in adult salivary glands.</p><p>The team analyzed large single cell atlases of mouse gene activity, and isolated FGF10-expressing cells for in-depth gene expression analysis. In this way, they found that while mesenchymal cells called fibroblasts produce FGF10 in very young mice, a very different cell type -- a type of salivary duct-lining epithelial cell -- takes over production starting in the second week of life.</p><p>The researchers showed that this FGF10-producing epithelial cell has molecular markers indicating that it is an ionocyte, an evolutionarily ancient cell type that maintains proper levels of ions and related molecules in local tissues.</p><p>Among the products of this ionocyte, they observed, is the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator protein (CFTR). This protein is best known as the cause of the lung disease cystic fibrosis when it is absent in lungs through inherited mutation. However, it is also known to have an important role in salivary and tear glands, where its deficiency contributes to a common, inflammatory, dry-mouth/eye syndrome called Sjögren\'s syndrome. The identification of the cell type that produces CFTR in the adult salivary gland might thus lead to better therapies for this syndrome, the researchers said.</p><p>The researchers noted too that this newly identified ionocyte\'s FGF10-producing function makes it unique among ionocytes.</p><p>\"The fact that this cell is the producer of FGF10 in adult salivary glands suggests that it could have a big role in gland maintenance and repair after injury,\" says study co-author Vanessa Delcroix, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the Makarenkova laboratory.</p><p>Although their initial analyses concerned mouse cells, the researchers found evidence of very similar salivary gland ionocytes in a protein atlas of human tissues.</p><p>The researchers now are following up with further studies, including in human cells. Their hope is that a better understanding of how these FGF10-making ionocytes work in the adult salivary gland will pave the way for effective therapies for conditions affecting salivary glands as well as tear glands, given the many similarities between the two.</p><p>Support for the research included grants from the National Eye Institute (5R01EY026202, 5R01EY028983) and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (R01DE031044).</p>','2022-04-12 23:51:13.991636','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Scripps Research Institute','Scientists have discovered a special type of cell that resides in salivary glands and is likely crucial for oral health.\n',1,29,'<li>Olivier Mauduit et al. <strong>A mesenchymal to epithelial switch in Fgf10 expression specifies an evolutionary-conserved population of ionocytes in salivary glands</strong>. <em>Cell Reports</em>, 2022 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110663\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110663</a>\n</li>'),(2084,'Adolescent drug overdose deaths rose exponentially for the first time in history during the COVID pandemic','adolescent-drug-overdose-deaths-rose-exponentially-for-the-first-time-in-history-during-the-covid-pandemic','2022-04-13 01:33:06.457117',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The rate of overdose deaths among U.S. teenagers nearly doubled in 2020, the first year of the COVID pandemic, and rose another 20% in the first half of 2021 compared with the 10 years before the pandemic, even as drug use remained generally stable during the same period, according to new UCLA research.</p><p>This is the first time in recorded history that the teen drug death rate has seen an exponential rise, even though rates of illicit drug use among teens are at all-time lows, said lead author Joseph Friedman, an addiction researcher and M.D. and Ph.D. candidate at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.</p><p>\"Drug use is becoming more dangerous, not more common,\" Friedman said. \"The increases are almost entirely due to illicit fentanyls, which are increasingly found in counterfeit pills. These counterfeit pills are spreading across the nation, and teens may not realize they are dangerous.\"</p><p>The study is published in <em>JAMA</em>.</p><p>The researchers used the CDC WONDER (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research) database to calculate drug overdose deaths per 100,000 population for adolescents aged 14 to 18 years that occurred from January 2010 to June 2021.</p><p>They found 518 deaths, or a rate of 2.4 per 100,000, among adolescents in 2010, and a steady rate of 492 deaths (2.36 per 100,000) each subsequent year through 2019. In 2020, there was a sharp increase to 954 deaths (4.57 per 100,000), rising to 1,146 deaths (5.49 per 100,000) in early 2021.</p><p>Broken down by ethnicity and race:</p><p>A small number of individuals were from racial/ethnic groups that were not listed in the paper, or simply had missing racial/ethnicity details, which accounts for the discrepancy between the totals for deaths and rates and the racial/ethnic breakdown.</p><p>Fake versions of prescription drugs such as Xanax, Percocet and Vicodin, whose strength can fluctuate, also contributed toward the increase in overdose deaths, Friedman noted.</p><p>\"Teens urgently need to be informed about this rising danger,\" Friedman said. \"Accurate information about the risk of drugs needs to be presented in schools. Teens need to know that pills and powders are the highest risk for overdose, as they are most likely to contain illicit fentanyls. Pills and powders can be tested for the presence of fentanyls using testing strips, which are becoming more widely available.\"</p><p>In addition, education and access to naloxone, which can reverse overdoses, are needed in schools and places frequented by teens, he said.</p><p>The findings are limited by some factors. Among them, the observational nature of the study\'s design cannot establish causality, race and ethnicity may have been incorrectly assigned, 2021 results were provisional and included scaled values from January to June, and there were small numbers in some of the groups studied. Also, the role of suicidal ideation, social isolation and other factors unique to the pandemic could not be established.</p><p>The UCLA Medical Scientist Training Program, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (K01-DA050771), and the Korein Foundation funded this research.</p><p>Study co-authors are Chelsea Shover, Dr. Helena Hansen, and Dr. David Schriger of UCLA; Morgan Godvin of the Local Public Safety Coordinating Council in Portland, Oregon; and Joseph Gone of Harvard University.</p>','2022-04-13 01:33:06.457117','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences','The rate of overdose deaths among U.S. teenagers nearly doubled in 2020, the first year of the COVID pandemic, and rose another 20% in the first half of 2021 compared with the 10 years before the pandemic, even as drug use remained generally stable during the same period.\n',1,203,'<li>Joseph Friedman, Morgan Godvin, Chelsea L. Shover, Joseph P. Gone, Helena Hansen, David L. Schriger. <strong>Trends in Drug Overdose Deaths Among US Adolescents, January 2010 to June 2021</strong>. <em>JAMA</em>, 2022; 327 (14): 1398 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2022.2847\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1001/jama.2022.2847</a>\n</li>'),(2085,'Deforestation drives climate change that harms remaining forest','deforestation-drives-climate-change-that-harms-remaining-forest','2022-04-13 04:06:15.303715',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">In a paper published today in <em>Nature Communications, </em>a team led by scientists from the University of California, Irvine, using climate models and satellite data, reveal for the first time how protecting tropical forests can yield climate benefits that enhance carbon storage in nearby areas.</p><p>Many climate scientists use computer simulations to mimic the planet\'s climate as it exists today and how it may exist in the future as humanity keeps emitting greenhouse gases. Such models rely on accurate measurements all the moving parts of the climate system, from how much sunlight hits and warms the climate, to the response of forest biomass to changes in temperature, rainfall and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.</p><p>The list of moving parts is long, and one part that has until now remained unmeasured is the degree to which deforestation in tropical rainforests like the Amazon and the Congo contributes to additional forest losses because of its effect on regional climate.</p><p>\"We used Earth system models to quantify what the climate impact from tropical deforestation is today,\" said lead author Yue Li, UCI postdoctoral researcher in Earth system science. \"Then, we used this information with satellite observations of forest biomass to figure out how nearby forests are responding to these changes.\"</p><p>Jim Randerson, UCI professor of Earth system science, added: \"This paper shows that avoiding deforestation yields carbon benefits in nearby regions as a consequence of climate feedbacks.\"</p><p>He explained that for a new patch of deforestation in the Amazon, the regional climate changes that happen as a result led to an additional 5.1 percent more loss of total biomass in the entire Amazon basin. In the Congo, the additional biomass loss from the climate effects of deforestation is about 3.8 percent. Tropical forests store about 200 petagrams of carbon in their aboveground biomass. Since 2010, deforestation has been removing about 1 petagram of that carbon every year. (One petagram is equal to 1 trillion kilograms.)</p><p>Until now, climate modelers have, for lack of data, not considered tree mortality in their climate simulations. But by combining satellite data with climate variables, they obtained information about how sensitive carbon stored in vegetation is to climatic changes that result from tree mortality and fire.</p><p>\"Deforestation has ramifications to forests growing elsewhere, because its consequences to the region\'s air temperature and precipitation,\" said co-author Paulo Brando, UCI professor of Earth system science. \"Until recently, it was very difficult to isolate the effects of deforestation though.\"</p><p>By developing new estimates of regional carbon losses from deforestation-driven climate change in the Amazon and the Congo, the team provided information that will help scientists fine tune their models. This \"might help us design better climate solutions,\" Randerson said. By knowing exactly how much biomass is being lost through this activity, he explained, policymakers can make stronger arguments for why it\'s worthwhile to curb deforestation, because they can now better describe the knock-on effects.</p><p>Joining Brando, Li and Randerson on this project, which was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science and NASA, were Dave Lawrence at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and Hui Yang from the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Germany.</p>','2022-04-13 04:06:15.303715','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of California - Irvine','Scientists using climate models and satellite data reveal for the first time how protecting tropical forests can yield climate benefits that enhance carbon storage in nearby areas.\n',1,34,'<li>Yue Li, Paulo M. Brando, Douglas C. Morton, David M. Lawrence, Hui Yang, James T. Randerson. <strong>Deforestation-induced climate change reduces carbon storage in remaining tropical forests</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29601-0\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-29601-0</a>\n</li>'),(2086,'Method efficiently breaks down plastic bottles into component parts','method-efficiently-breaks-down-plastic-bottles-into-component-parts','2022-04-13 15:44:40.064062',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">What if the life cycle of the plastic bottle was circular? Where a used plastic bottle was returned to its original components, ready to be made into a new plastic bottle instead of possibly ending up in a landfill.</p><p>A Northwestern University research team is the first to demonstrate that a material called a metal-organic framework (MOF) is a stable and selective catalyst for breaking down polyester-based plastic into its component parts.</p><p>Only three things are needed: plastic, hydrogen and the catalyst. An important bonus is that one of the component parts the plastic is broken down into is terephthalic acid, a chemical used to produce plastic. With the Northwestern method, it isn\'t necessary to go all the way back to oil and the expensive and energy-intensive production and separation of xylenes.</p><p>\"We can do a lot better than starting from scratch when making plastic bottles,\" said Omar Farha, a professor of chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. He is the corresponding author of the study. \"Our process is much cleaner.\"</p><p>The work was published recently in the journal <em>Angewandte Chemie.</em></p><p>The researchers chose a zirconium-basedMOF called UiO-66 because it is easy to make, scalable and inexpensive. Yufang Wu, the study\'s first author and a visiting graduate student in Farha\'s group, used the plastic that was most handy: the plastic water bottles her colleagues in the lab had discarded. She chopped them up, heated the plastic and applied the catalyst.</p><p>\"The MOF performed even better than we anticipated,\" Farha said. \"We found the catalyst to be very selective and robust. Neither the color of the plastic bottle or the different plastic the bottle caps were made from affected the efficiency of the catalyst. And the method doesn\'t require organic solvents, which is a plus.\"</p><p><strong>MOFs used earlier on nerve agents</strong></p><p>A class of nano-sized materials, MOFs have been widely investigated because of their highly ordered structures. Farha has studied MOFs for more than a decade and previously showed they can be used to destroy toxic nerve agents. In the current study, Farha said, MOFs act in much the same way -- breaking an ester bond to degrade polyethylene terephthalate (PET). This plastic is one of the most popular consumer plastics worldwide.</p><p>\"We\'ve been using zirconium MOFs to degrade nerve agents for years,\" Farha said. \"The team then wondered if these MOFs could also degrade plastic even though the reactions and mechanism are different. That curiosity led to our recent findings.\"</p><p>\"This research helps to address long-standing challenges associated with plastic waste and opens up new areas and applications for MOFs,\" Farha said.</p><p><strong>More on MOFs</strong></p><p>MOFsare made of organic molecules and metal ions or clusters which self-assemble to form multidimensional, highly crystalline, porous frameworks. To picture the structure of a MOF, Farha said, envision a set of Tinkertoys in which the metal ions or clusters are the circular or square nodes and the organic molecules are the rods holding the nodes together.</p><p>In addition to being easy to make, scalable and inexpensive, another advantage of UiO-66 is that the MOF\'s organic linker, terephthalic acid (TA), is what you get when breaking down plastic.</p><p>Structural characterization studies revealed that during the degradation process, UiO-66 undergoes an interesting transformation into another zirconium-based MOF called MIL-140A. This MOF also showed great catalytic activity toward PET degradation.</p>','2022-04-13 15:44:40.064062','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Northwestern University','A research team has demonstrated that a material called a metal-organic framework (MOF) is a stable and selective catalyst for breaking down polyester-based plastic into its component parts. Only three things are needed: plastic, hydrogen and the catalyst. An important bonus is that one of the component parts the plastic is broken down into is terephthalic acid, a chemical used to produce plastic.\n',1,25,'<li>Yufang Wu, Xingjie Wang, Kent O. Kirlikovali, Xinyi Gong, Ahmet Atilgan, Kaikai Ma, Neil M. Schweitzer, Nathan C. Gianneschi, Zhong Li, Xuan Zhang, Omar K Farha. <strong>Catalytic Degradation of Polyethylene Terephthalate Using a Phase‐Transitional Zirconium‐Based Metal‐Organic Framework</strong>. <em>Angewandte Chemie International Edition</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.202117528\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/anie.202117528</a>\n</li>'),(2087,'Study explores effects of extended spaceflight on brain','study-explores-effects-of-extended-spaceflight-on-brain','2022-04-13 15:46:00.034077',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Scientists from the U.S., Europe and Russia are part of a team releasing the results of a large collaborative study involving the effects of long duration spaceflight on the brain. It appears in the <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>.</p><p>The researchers found that while all of the astronauts and cosmonauts they studied had a similar level of cerebrospinal fluid buildup in the brain, along with reduced space between the brain and the surrounding membrane at the top of the head, there was a noteworthy difference when it came to the Americans. They had more enlargement in the perivascular spaces in the brain, passages that serve as a cleaning system during sleep. That\'s something the researchers say warrants further investigation.</p><p>Donna Roberts, M.D., a neuroradiologist at the Medical University of South Carolina who helped lead the study, said a challenge when it comes to exploring the effects of spaceflight has been that there aren\'t many people in the U.S. who have traveled to space. Combining information about NASA astronauts with that of Russian cosmonauts and astronauts from the European Space Agency gave the study depth.</p><p>\"By putting all our data together, we have a larger subject number. That\'s important when you do this type of study. When you\'re looking for statistical significance, you need to have larger numbers of subjects.\"</p><p>The study focused on 24 Americans, 13 Russians and a small, unspecified number of astronauts from the ESA. It used MRI scans of their brains before and after six months on the International Space Station to evaluate changes in the perivascular spaces.</p><p>Lead researcher Floris Wuyts, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Antwerp in Belgium, put the scope of the project in perspective. \"I think it is one of the largest studies on space data, and for sure, one of the very few studies with NASA, ESA and Roscosmos data. It comprises data of almost 10% of all people who went into space.\" Roscosmos is the Russian space corporation.</p><p>Fellow researcher and neuroscientist Giuseppe Barisano, M.D., Ph.D., who works at the University of Southern California, said they looked for differences between the crews. \"And in this analysis, we found an increased volume of fluid-filled channels in the brain after spaceflight that was more prominent in the NASA crew than in the Roscosmos crew.\"</p><p>Roberts explained what that might mean. \"An important implication of our findings is that the volume of fluid-filled channels in the brain of astronauts is linked to the development of the spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome, a syndrome characterized by vision changes and whose mechanisms are still not completely clear.\"</p><p>But space physiologist Elena Tomilovskaya, Ph.D., of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said further study is needed to determine if there are clinical implications for future flights. \"We need to understand how specific microgravity-countermeasure usage, exercise regimes, diet and other factors may play a role in the differences we found between crews.\"</p><p>Roberts agreed. \"It is important not to speculate about pathology or brain health problems at this time. The observed effects are very small, but there are significant changes when we compare the post-flight scans with the preflight scans,\" she said.</p><p>The idea for the large study came about as the scientists gathered at annual meetings held by NASA and ESA. \"Independently, we had previously reported similar changes in space crews at post-flight brain MRI, including enlargement of the cerebral ventricles. We discussed our findings and realized how valuable it would be to perform a joint analysis of our data. I would like to point out that Dr. Wuyts, in particular, was instrumental in organizing our group, which met regularly for two years to carry out this analysis,\" Roberts said.\"I believe it highlights the importance of international cooperation in understanding the effects of long-term spaceflight on the human body. In fact, we believe international cooperation in space medicine research is essential to ensure the safety of our crews as we return to the Moon and on to Mars.\"</p><p>The study, \"The effect of prolonged spaceflight on cerebrospinal fluid and perivascular spaces of astronauts and cosmonauts,\" was funded by the Russian Academy of Sciences, NASA, ESA, the Belgian Science Policy Prodex, FWO Flanders and the National Institute of Mental Health at the National Institutes of Health in the U.S.</p>','2022-04-13 15:46:00.034077','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Medical University of South Carolina','Scientists from the U.S., Europe and Russia are part of a team releasing the results of a large collaborative study involving the effects of long duration spaceflight on the brain.\n',1,124,'<li>Giuseppe Barisano, Farshid Sepehrband, Heather R. Collins, Steven Jillings, Ben Jeurissen, James A. Taylor, Catho Schoenmaekers, Chloë De Laet, Ilya Rukavishnikov, Inna Nosikova, Liudmila Litvinova, Alena Rumshiskaya, Jitka Annen, Jan Sijbers, Steven Laureys, Angelique Van Ombergen, Victor Petrovichev, Valentin Sinitsyn, Ekaterina Pechenkova, Alexey Grishin, Peter zu Eulenburg, Meng Law, Stefan Sunaert, Paul M. Parizel, Elena Tomilovskaya, Donna R. Roberts, Floris L. Wuyts. <strong>The effect of prolonged spaceflight on cerebrospinal fluid and perivascular spaces of astronauts and cosmonauts</strong>. <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>, 2022; 119 (17) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2120439119\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1073/pnas.2120439119</a>\n</li>'),(2088,'A 4 V-class metal-free organic lithium-ion battery gets closer to reality','a-4-v-class-metal-free-organic-lithium-ion-battery-gets-closer-to-reality','2022-04-13 16:43:55.392274',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">A joint research team from Tohoku University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has made a significant advancement towards high-voltage metal-free lithium-ion batteries that use a small organic molecule, croconic acid. The breakthrough moves us closer to realizing metal-free, high-energy, and inexpensive lithium-ion batteries.</p><p>Unlike conventional lithium-ion batteries, which depend on rare-earth materials such as cobalt and lithium, organic batteries exploit naturally abundant elements such as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. In addition, organic batteries have greater theoretical capacities than conventional lithium-ion batteries because their use of organic materials renders them lightweight. Most reported organic batteries to date, however, possess a relatively low (1-3V) working voltage. Increasing organic batteries\' voltage will lead to higher energy density batteries.</p><p>Itaru Honma, a professor of chemistry at Tohoku University\'s Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Hiroaki Kobayashi, an assistant professor of chemistry at Tohoku University, and Yuto Katsuyama, a graduate student at UCLA, found that croconic acid, when used as a lithium-ion battery cathode material, maintains a strong working voltage of around 4 V.</p><p>Croconic acid has five carbon atoms bonded to each other in a pentagonal form, and each of the carbons is bonded to oxygen. It also has a high theoretical capacity of 638.6 mAh/g, which is much higher than the conventional lithium-ion battery cathode materials (LiCoO2 ~ 140 mAh/g). \"We investigated the electrochemical behavior of croconic acid in the high-voltage range above 3 V using theoretical calculations and electrochemical experiments,\" said Kobayashi. \"We discovered that croconic acid stores lithium ions at roughly 4 V, giving a very high theoretical energy density of 1949 Wh/kg, which is larger than most inorganic and organic lithium-ion batteries.\"</p><p>Although the theoretical capacity was not achieved in this study, the researchers are optimistic this can be enhanced by the development of stable electrolytes at high-voltage and chemical modifications to croconic acid. Since most electrolytes cannot stand for such a strong working voltage of croconic acid, developing new electrolytes is vital. Additionally, the structures of small organic molecules, including croconic acid, can be easily modified. Appropriate structural modification can stabilize the molecule, leading to greater capacity and reversibility.</p>','2022-04-13 16:43:55.392274','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Tohoku University','Organic, metal free, high-energy batteries are a pathway to a greener future. Yet scientists have struggled to find ways to boost the voltage in organic lithium-ion batteries. Now, a study has proposed a small organic molecule known as croconic acid that can maintain a working voltage of around 4 Volts.\n',1,72,'<li>Yuto Katsuyama, Hiroaki Kobayashi, Kazuyuki Iwase, Yoshiyuki Gambe, Itaru Honma. <strong>Are Redox‐Active Organic Small Molecules Applicable for High‐Voltage (&gt;4 V) Lithium‐Ion Battery Cathodes?</strong> <em>Advanced Science</em>, 2022; 2200187 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/advs.202200187\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1002/advs.202200187</a>\n</li>'),(2089,'Obesity significantly increased heart failure risk among women with late menopause','obesity-significantly-increased-heart-failure-risk-among-women-with-late-menopause','2022-04-13 16:44:55.328866',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">While women who enter menopause before age 45 are known to be at higher risk for heart failure, obesity significantly increased heart failure risk among women who experienced late menopause -- at age 55 or older, 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>A woman\'s body produces less estrogen and progesterone after menopause, changes that can increase the risk for cardiovascular diseases including heart failure, according to the American Heart Association. Menopause typically occurs between the age of 45 and 55, however, the average age for natural menopause has increased by 1.5 years over the past six decades, according to some research. In the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1959-2018 -- surveys providing nationally representative estimates of the United States -- the prevalence of early menopause (before age 45) was 12.6% and late menopause (after age 55) was 14.2%.</p><p>Previous research has found that women who experience early menopause are at heightened risk of heart failure. Heart failure is diagnosed when the heart is unable to pump sufficient blood and oxygen to allow the body organs to function well.</p><p>\"There is a gap in knowledge about the possible influence of late menopause -- occurring at age 55 or older -- on the incidence of heart failure,\" according to lead study author Imo A. Ebong, M.D., M.S., an associate professor of medicine in the division of cardiovascular medicine at the University of California Davis, in Sacramento, California.</p><p>\"We know that obesity increases the risk of developing heart failure, and the onset of menopause is associated with increased body fatness,\" said Ebong. \"In our study, we investigated if and how obesity affects the relationship between menopausal age and the future risk of developing heart failure.\"</p><p>Investigators analyzed health data for nearly 4,500 postmenopausal women participating in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study. ARIC is a long-term research project that began enrolling participants in 1987, focused on measuring the associations between known and suspected heart disease risk factors and the development of heart disease among adults in four diverse communities in the United States: Forsyth County, North Carolina; Jackson, Mississippi; the suburbs of Minneapolis; and Washington County, Maryland. Six follow-up visits were completed by 2019.</p><p>For this analysis, participants were grouped by how old they were when the entered menopause: younger than 45 years; 45-49 years; 50-54 years; and 55 years and older. The average age of study participants was 63.5 years at the fourth visit. Women with a heart failure diagnosis before the fourth study visit were excluded from in the analysis for this study.</p><p>Among many baseline measurements and assessments conducted at the fourth follow-up exam, the women provided their age at menopause, and their weight was measured. They were then classified by weight, into one of three groups: normal weight (if body mass index -- BMI -- was between 18.5 -- 24.9 kg/m<sup>2</sup>); overweight (if body mass index was between 25.0 -- 29.9 kg/m<sup>2</sup>); and obese (if body mass index was 30 kg/m<sup>2</sup> or higher). In addition, abdominal obesity was noted if waist circumference was 35 inches or more at the navel.</p><p>The heart failure risk potentially attributed to obesity as measured by BMI or waist circumference was calculated after adjusting for multiple other health and lifestyle risk factors for heart disease, including other conditions such as Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, hypertension (or high blood pressure), kidney function, inflammation, left ventricular hypertrophy and prior heart attack. During an average follow-up of 16.5 years, about 900 of the women had developed heart failure that resulted in either hospitalization or death.</p><p>The analysis found significant connections for menopausal age, BMI and waist circumference and heart failure risk:</p><p>\"We had expected that the effect of obesity on heart failure risk would be greatest among women who had experienced early menopause. This was not so, \" Ebong said. \"The detrimental effects of obesity on heart failure risk was greatest among women who experienced late menopause.\"</p><p>The information from the study may be helpful when screening for heart failure and counselling postmenopausal women about heart failure prevention, according to Ebong.</p><p>\"A woman\'s age when she enters menopause is an important factor, and women should share this information with their physicians to guide in estimating their risk of developing heart failure,\" Ebong said. \"Women with early menopause should be informed of their increased risk and counseled to adopt healthy lifestyle and behavioral changes. Women with late menopause should be particularly counseled to maintain a healthy body weight and prevent obesity to decrease their risk of future heart failure.\"</p><p>The current study is limited because it did not include enough women to analyze separately for different types of heart failure.</p><p>\"Our analysis should be repeated according to heart failure subtypes, preserved and reduced ejection fraction heart failure, to more clearly understand heart failure risk estimation and provide guidance on screening and prevention programs,\" said Ebong.</p><p>Co-authors are Machelle D. Wilson, Ph.D.; Duke Appiah, Ph.D.; Erin D. Michos, M.D., M.S.; Susan B. Racette, Ph.D.; Amparo Villablanca, M.D.; Khadijah Breathett, M.D., M.S.; Pamela L. Lutsey, Ph.D., M.P.H.; Melissa Wellons, M.D.; Karol E. Watson, M.D., Ph.D.; Patricia Chang, M.D., M.H.S.; and Alain G. Bertoni, M.D., M.P.H.  </p><p>The study was funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.</p>','2022-04-13 16:44:55.328866','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'American Heart Association','While women who enter menopause before age 45 are known to be at higher risk of heart failure, obesity significantly increased heart failure risk among women who experienced late menopause -- at age 55 or older, according to a new study. The findings indicate that maintaining a healthy weight and avoiding abdominal obesity may protect against developing heart failure, especially among women who experience late menopause.\n',1,150,'<li>Imo A. Ebong, Machelle D. Wilson, Duke Appiah, Erin D. Michos, Susan B. Racette, Amparo Villablanca, Khadijah Breathett, Pamela L. Lutsey, Melissa Wellons, Karol E. Watson, Patricia Chang, Alain G. Bertoni. <strong>Relationship Between Age at Menopause, Obesity, and Incident Heart Failure: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study</strong>. <em>Journal of the American Heart Association</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.121.024461\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1161/JAHA.121.024461</a>\n</li>'),(2090,'Feel the attraction of zwitterionic Janus Particles','feel-the-attraction-of-zwitterionic-janus-particles','2022-04-13 16:44:57.953739',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Researchers from The Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology and The Institute of Industrial Science at The University of Tokyo used a new computer simulation to model the electrostatic self-organization of zwitterionic nanoparticles, which are useful for drug delivery. They found that including transient charge fluctuations greatly increased the accuracy, which may help lead to the development of new self-assembling smart nanomaterials.</p><p>In ancient Roman mythology, Janus was the god of both beginnings and endings. His dual nature was often reflected in his depiction with two faces. He also lends his name to so-called Janus particles, which are nanoparticles that contain two or more distinct physical or chemical properties on their surface. One promising \"two-faced\" solution uses zwitterionic particles, which are spheres with a positively charged side and a negatively charged side. Researchers hope to create self-organizing structures, which can be activated by changes in a solution\'s salt concentration or pH. However, this kind of \"bottom-up\" engineering requires more accurate computer simulations to implement.</p><p>Now, a team of researchers from The Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology and The Institute of Industrial Science at The University of Tokyo have created a new computer model that incorporates transient fluctuations in the change distributions on the surface of the particles that can give rise to a wider variety of structures, compared with current software. \"Simulating the dynamic dissociation or association of ionization groups is inherently more challenging, and must be iterated repeatedly until self-consistent results are obtained,\" first author Jiaxing Yuan says.</p><p>The researchers showed that the previous method of assuming each of the particles carries a constant charge can give inaccurate results. To simulate the possible transition to compact clusters, instead of exclusively producing elongated strands, the computer needed to include short-lived fluctuations in surface charge. These differences are particularly noticeable at low salt concentration and high electrostatic coupling strength.</p><p>In living organisms, proteins fold into very specific shapes based in large part on the attraction between the positively and negatively charged regions. In the future, artificially designed particles may be able to self-assemble when triggered by a change in conditions. \"With zwitterionic particles, we hope to create functional materials with tunable properties, similar to the self-organization of charged proteins,\" senior author Hajime Tanaka says.</p>','2022-04-13 16:44:57.953739','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo','Researchers have created a more accurate computer simulation of double-faced nanoparticles that form self-assembled structures based on electrostatic attraction. By including temporary charge fluctuations, compact clusters are shown to be a possible outcome, which may lead to new smart nanomaterials.\n',1,27,'<li>Jiaxing Yuan, Kyohei Takae, Hajime Tanaka. <strong>Impact of Charge Regulation on Self-Assembly of Zwitterionic Nanoparticles</strong>. <em>Physical Review Letters</em>, 2022; 128 (15) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.158001\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.158001</a>\n</li>'),(2091,'Better coaching needed to prevent burnout among video gaming pros','better-coaching-needed-to-prevent-burnout-among-video-gaming-pros','2022-04-13 16:45:00.406800',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Early research into the growing electronic sports (esports) industry highlights a need for better coaching to prevent burnout among professional players.</p><p>The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Waterloo, identified several areas, including player fatigue, mental stress and peak performance conditions, that require in-depth research to improve coaching and player performance.</p><p>\"They burn out because they spend long hours sitting at desks playing and training,\" said Bader Sabtan, a systems design engineering PhD student who led the study. \"It results in all kinds of problems, from mental health issues to back and wrist injuries.\"</p><p>In a survey of professional League of Legends teams, it was found there are virtually no standardized coaching approaches or techniques to guide young players.</p><p>Instead, players work to remain competitive in the constantly changing team battle video game, one of several with lucrative fan followings around the world, by practicing 12 to 14 hours a day, six days a week.</p><p>Professional esports fill stadiums with spectators as players, who average just 18 to 20 years of age, compete at computers while their games are shown on giant screens. One championship event in 2018 drew almost 100 million online viewers.</p><p>The researchers focused on League of Legends, which has 47 pro teams in North America, Europe, Korea and China. Players can earn more than $400,000 a year, but rarely have careers that last beyond three or four years.</p><p>Coaches who participated in the study unanimously agreed that methods must be developed to make practice more efficient and strategic to reduce the demands on players.</p><p>\"I was surprised to learn even top professional coaches don\'t have systematic training methods,\" said Shi Cao, a systems design engineering professor and a member of the Games Institute at Waterloo. \"Nothing is supported by scientific evidence or research.</p><p>\"Just as physiology and kinesiology research supports traditional sports, cognitive psychology and human factors engineering can support mental work like esports,\" said Cao, an esports fan and recreational player.</p><p>Sabtan can personally relate to the relentless demands on the best players. A few years ago, he was in the top one per cent of League of Legends players and spent up to 50 hours a week practicing to stay there.</p><p>\"Right now, there is no other option,\" Sabtan said. \"The required sharpness, game knowledge and reaction speed are only achieved by practicing and repetition, so they just play the game. They don\'t have social lives. They don\'t have girlfriends or boyfriends. It\'s unsustainable.\"</p>','2022-04-13 16:45:00.406800','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Waterloo','Early research into the growing electronic sports (esports) industry highlights a need for better coaching to prevent burnout among professional players.\n',1,92,'<li>Bader Sabtan, Shi Cao, Naomi Paul. <strong>Current practice and challenges in coaching Esports players: An interview study with league of legends professional team coaches</strong>. <em>Entertainment Computing</em>, 2022; 42: 100481 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.entcom.2022.100481\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.entcom.2022.100481</a>\n</li>'),(2092,'Newborns’ brains already organized into functional networks','newborns’-brains-already-organized-into-functional-networks','2022-04-13 16:45:06.140995',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Right from birth, human brains are organized into networks that support mental functions such as vision and attention, a new study shows.</p><p>Previous studies had shown that adults have seven such functional networks in the brain. This study, the first to take a fine-grained, whole-brain approach in newborns, found five of those networks are operating at birth.</p><p>Crucially, the study also found individual variability in those networks in newborns, which may have implications for how genetics affects behavior in adults.</p><p>\"For centuries, humans have wondered about what makes them unique and the role of genetic programming versus our lifetime of experience,\" said Zeynep Saygin, senior author of the study and assistant professor of psychology at The Ohio State University.</p><p>\"Our study shows variability in the brain at birth that may be related to some of the behavioral differences we see in adults.\"</p><p>The study, published recently in the journal <em>NeuroImage</em>, was led by M. Fiona Molloy, a psychology graduate student at Ohio State.</p><p>The researchers analyzed fMRI scans of the brains of 267 newborns, most less than a week old, who were part of the Developing Human Connectome Project. All infants were scanned for 15 minutes while they were asleep.</p><p>The study involved analysis of the smallest bits of brain possible with MRI -- called voxels or volumetric pixels -- to see how the signals of each voxel were related to other voxels in the brain.</p><p>\"Even when we\'re sleeping, the brain is active and different parts are communicating with each other,\" Saygin said.</p><p>\"We identify networks by finding which parts of the brain show similar patterns of activity at the same time -- for example when one area activates, the other does too. They are talking to each other.\"</p><p>Findings showed five networks in newborns that resembled those found in adults: the visual, default, sensorimotor, ventral attention and high-level vision networks.</p><p>Adults have two additional networks not found in the brains of newborns: the control and limbic networks. These are both involved with higher-level functions, Saygin explained.</p><p>The control network allows adults to make plans to meet goals. The limbic network is involved in emotional regulation.</p><p>\"Babies have little cognitive control and emotional regulation, so it is not surprising that these networks aren\'t developed,\" Saygin said.</p><p>\"But one possibility would have been that they are set up at birth and just need to be honed. That\'s not what we found, though. Those networks are not there at all yet and must develop through experience.\"</p><p>The researchers also examined individual differences in the brain networks of the newborns studied. Results showed that the ventral attention network showed the most variability in the newborns. This is the network involved in directing attention to important stimuli encountered in the world, especially something that may be unexpected.</p><p>\"Our results suggest that the ventral attention network is a stable source of individual variability that exists at birth and perhaps persists through the lifetime,\" she said.</p><p>In adults, this individual variability in network organization has been linked to behavior and different disorders.</p><p>\"We see individual differences in network organization as early as birth, and it could be interesting to see if these differences predict behavior or risk of psychological disorders later in life,\" Molloy said.</p><p>In another analysis, the researchers used tissue samples of human brains available through the Allan Human Brain Atlas to explore how differences in the brain networks in the newborns may be tied to differences in gene expression -- the process of turning on or activating genes.</p><p>They found multiple genes from the brain tissue samples that may have led to the specific brain organizations they found in individual newborns in the study.</p><p>\"This might uncover a potential genetic basis for why we\'re seeing these differences in the networks of newborns in our study,\" she said.</p><p>Future research will examine how these networks develop over time to get a better understanding of the role of genetic programming and experience in producing variability in these networks.</p><p>\"We want to further understand the developmental trajectory of these networks to learn how genes and experience relate to future behavior and outcomes,\" Saygin said.</p>','2022-04-13 16:45:06.140995','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Ohio State University','Right from birth, human brains are organized into networks that support mental functions such as vision and attention, a new study shows.\n',1,149,'<li>M. Fiona Molloy, Zeynep M. Saygin. <strong>Individual variability in functional organization of the neonatal brain</strong>. <em>NeuroImage</em>, 2022; 253: 119101 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119101\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119101</a>\n</li>'),(2093,'Validating models for next-generation fusion facilities','validating-models-for-next-generation-fusion-facilities','2022-04-13 16:45:10.187750',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The flagship fusion facility of the U.S. Department of Energy\'s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) could serve as the model for an economically attractive next-generation fusion pilot plant, according to recent simulations and analysis. The pilot plant could become the next U.S. step for harvesting on Earth the fusion power that drives the sun and stars as a safe and clean source of power for generating electricity.</p><p>The U.S. fusion community has recently urged an immediate effort to design and construct a cost-effective pilot plant to generate electricity in the 2040s. Unique capabilities of the PPPL flagship, the National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U) that is currently under repair, have made its design a candidate for that role. \"It\'s all about trying to project whether this route is favorable for a cost-effective pilot plant and beyond,\" said principal physicist Walter Guttenfelder, lead author of a paper in the journal <em>Nuclear Fusion</em> that details the latest findings.</p><p>Fusion produces vast energy by combining light elements such as hydrogen in the form of plasma, the hot, charged state of matter composed of free electrons and atomic nuclei, or ions. Plasma composes 99 percent of the visible universe and fuels fusion reactions that produce heat and light that create and sustain life on Earth.</p><p>The spherically shaped NSTX-U produces high-pressure plasmas required for fusion reactions in a relatively compact and cost-effective configuration. Operating capabilities of the facility are greatly enhanced over its pre-upgraded predecessor. \"The primary motivation for NSTX-U is to push up to even higher powers, higher magnetic fields supporting high-temperature plasmas to see if previously observed favorable trends continue,\" Guttenfelder said.</p><p>Recent theory, analysis and modeling from the NSTX-U research team predict that many of these trends should be demonstrated in new NSTX-U experiments. Predicted operating conditions for the NSTX-U include the following:</p><p><strong>Starting up plasma.</strong> Modeling has been developed to efficiently optimize plasma initiation and ramp up, and it was applied to help a spherical tokamak facility in the United Kingdom produce its first plasma.</p><p><strong>Understanding the plasma edge.</strong> New models simulate the dynamics between the edge of the plasma and the tokamak wall that can determine whether the core of the plasma will reach the 150 million-degree temperatures needed to produce fusion reactions.</p><p><strong>Applying artificial intelligence. </strong>AI machine learning has developed a rapid path for optimizing and controlling plasma conditions that closely match predicted test targets.</p><p><strong>Novel techniques.</strong> Simulations suggest many novel techniques for shielding interior NSTX-U components from blasts of exhaust heat from fusion reactions. Among these concepts is the use of vaporized lithium to reduce the impact of heat flux.</p><p><strong>Stable performance.</strong> Studies found that a window for NSTX-U performance can remain stable in the face of instabilities that could degrade operations.</p><p><strong>What to avoid.</strong> Increased understanding of the conditions to avoid come from excellent agreement between the predicted range of unstable plasmas and a large experimental data base.</p><p>Considerable progress has therefore been made in understanding and projecting how NSTX-U can advance the development of fusion energy, the <em>Nuclear Fusion </em>paper says<em>.</em> \"The next step,\" said Guttenfelder, \"is to see if new experiments validate what we\'re predicting, and to refine the predictions if not. These steps together will enable more confident projections for future devices.\"</p><p>Support for this research comes from the DOE Office of Science with many simulations produced using resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science User Facility. Coauthors of the paper include researchers from PPPL and 23 collaborative institutions world-wide.</p>','2022-04-13 16:45:10.187750','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'DOE/Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory','The National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U) could serve as the model for a fusion energy pilot plant.\n',1,27,'<li>W. Guttenfelder, D.J. Battaglia, E. Belova, N. Bertelli, M.D. Boyer, C.S. Chang, A. Diallo, V.N. Duarte, F. Ebrahimi, E.D. Emdee, N. Ferraro, E. Fredrickson, N.N. Gorelenkov, W. Heidbrink, Z. Ilhan, S.M. Kaye, E.-H. Kim, A. Kleiner, F. Laggner, M. Lampert, J.B. Lestz, C. Liu, D. Liu, T. Looby, N. Mandell, R. Maingi, J.R. Myra, S. Munaretto, M. Podestà, T. Rafiq, R. Raman, M. Reinke, Y. Ren, J. Ruiz Ruiz, F. Scotti, S. Shiraiwa, V. Soukhanovskii, P. Vail, Z.R. Wang, W. Wehner, A.E. White, R.B. White, B.J.Q. Woods, J. Yang, S.J. Zweben, S. Banerjee, R. Barchfeld, R.E. Bell, J.W. Berkery, A. Bhattacharjee, A. Bierwage, G.P. Canal, X. Chen, C. Clauser, N. Crocker, C. Domier, T. Evans, M. Francisquez, K. Gan, S. Gerhardt, R.J. Goldston, T. Gray, A. Hakim, G. Hammett, S. Jardin, R. Kaita, B. Koel, E. Kolemen, S.-H. Ku, S. Kubota, B.P. LeBlanc, F. Levinton, J.D. Lore, N. Luhmann, R. Lunsford, R. Maqueda, J.E. Menard, J.H. Nichols, M. Ono, J.-K. Park, F. Poli, T. Rhodes, J. Riquezes, D. Russell, S.A. Sabbagh, E. Schuster, D.R. Smith, D. Stotler, B. Stratton, K. Tritz, W. Wang, B. Wirth. <strong>NSTX-U theory, modeling and analysis results</strong>. <em>Nuclear Fusion</em>, 2022; 62 (4): 042023 DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/ac5448\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1088/1741-4326/ac5448</a>\n</li>'),(2094,'New approach enhances muscle recovery in aged mice','new-approach-enhances-muscle-recovery-in-aged-mice','2022-04-13 17:13:41.324737',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Scientists have developed a promising new method to combat the age-related losses in muscle mass that often accompany immobility after injury or illness. Their technique, demonstrated in mice, arrests the process by which muscles begin to deteriorate at the onset of exercise after a period of inactivity.</p><p>They report their findings in the<em> Journal of Physiology.</em></p><p>Exercise, particularly engagement in load-bearing activities, helps retain muscle mass -- and is particularly important as one ages, said Marni Boppart, a professor of kinesiology and community health at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who led the research. Injury or illness can lead to periods of immobility and declines in muscle quality.</p><p>\"When we\'re not able to contract the muscle, it is going to atrophy,\" Boppart said. \"If that immobility continues for very long, there\'s going to be significant loss of muscle mass and strength.\"</p><p>The muscles of children and younger adults tend to recover quickly after resuming exercise, Boppart said. \"But unfortunately for older adults, they are deficient in the capacity to recover muscle mass after a period of disuse.\"</p><p>Physical therapy is often prescribed to promote healing after injury and immobility, she said. But studies show that muscle continues to deteriorate after the onset of exercise. Reactive oxygen species, a signal of inflammation and cellular dysfunction, accumulate in the muscles and impede the healing process.</p><p>Boppart\'s research focuses on the factors that enhance or degrade muscle mass in aging. In a previous study, she and her colleagues discovered that injections of support cells known as pericytes contributed to muscle recovery in young mice after a period of immobility. However, aged mice did not respond as well to the injections, and recovery was limited.</p><p>In the new study, the team collected pericytes from the muscles of young, healthy mice and grew them in cell culture. They exposed the cells to hydrogen peroxide -- a powerful oxidant that promotes the production of extracellular vesicles containing factors that combat stress and enhance healing -- and collected the EVs to use therapeutically.</p><p>Extracellular vesicles are essential to intercellular communication and can be used as biological markers of health and disease, Boppart said. Previous studies have shown that they also are powerful biological mediators of stress and healing.</p><p>\"For example, you can take the blood of young mice, collect the EVs from the blood and inject them into aged mice, and they now have a younger collection of traits, known as a phenotype,\" she said. \"You can take healthy EVs from mouse blood, introduce them into a diabetic mouse and it reverses diabetes.\"</p><p>No studies have explored the use of EVs to support muscle recovery, however, Boppart said.</p><p>The researchers injected their pericyte-derived EVs into the muscles of young and aged mice that had undergone a period of prolonged muscle immobility in one of their legs and were beginning to use those muscles again.</p><p>The approach worked: The mice treated with the stimulated EVs recovered skeletal muscle fiber size in both young and aged mice. The study also revealed -- for the first time -- that EVs derived from muscle pericytes produced a variety of factors that may combat inflammation and oxidative stress.</p><p>Using EVs has many advantages over whole-cell therapies, Boppart said. Cells cannot be collected, frozen and stored until needed for transplantation, but EVs can. Early studies suggest that animals do not mount an immune response to injected EVs, but more research is needed to test those findings.</p><p>The researchers detected a difference in how the young and older adult mice responded to the stimulated EVs, however. There was a measurable reduction in reactive oxygen species in the young adult mice that was not detected in the older mice. Despite this difference, both the young and aged mice remodeled the extracellular matrix, which supports muscle structure and growth, and recovered muscle fiber size compared with those not treated.</p><p>\"Until this study, we had no idea how the pericytes were working,\" Boppart said. \"We just knew that they were secreting beneficial factors that likely helped the recovery process. Now we have a much better grasp of the mechanism by which they do this. And we know how to stimulate them to do it better.\"</p><p>Boppart also is an affiliate of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at the U. of I.</p><p>The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases at the National Institutes of Health supported this research.</p>','2022-04-13 17:13:41.324737','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign','Scientists have developed a promising new method to combat the age-related losses in muscle mass that often accompany immobility after injury or illness. Their technique, demonstrated in mice, arrests the process by which muscles begin to deteriorate at the onset of exercise after a period of inactivity.\n',1,22,'<li>Yu‐Fu Wu, Eduardo A. De La Toba, Svyatoslav Dvoretskiy, Rebecca Jung, Noah Kim, Laureen Daniels, Elena V. Romanova, Jenny Drnevich, Jonathan V. Sweedler, Marni D. Boppart. <strong>Development of a cell‐free strategy to recover aged skeletal muscle after disuse</strong>. <em>The Journal of Physiology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1113/JP282867\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1113/JP282867</a>\n</li>'),(2095,'Historically redlined neighborhoods burdened by excess oil and gas wells, study finds','historically-redlined-neighborhoods-burdened-by-excess-oil-and-gas-wells,-study-finds','2022-04-13 18:16:37.118456',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Across the United States, historically redlined neighborhoods that scored lowest in racially discriminatory maps drawn by the government-sponsored Home-Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) in the 1930s had twice the density of oil and gas wells than comparable neighborhoods that scored highest. Wells likely contribute to disproportionate pollution and related health problems in redlined neighborhoods.</p><p>The study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, University of California Berkeley, and University of California San Francisco is published in the <em>Journal of Exposure Science &amp; Environmental Epidemiology</em>.</p><p>Oil and gas wells expose residents to air and water pollution, noise, and other sources of stress that can increase the risk of many types of disease: cardiovascular disease, impaired lung function, anxiety, depression, preterm birth, and impaired fetal growth. An estimated 17 million Americans live within one mile of at least one active oil or gas well.</p><p>\"We already know that people living in historically redlined neighborhoods have elevated risk of asthma, cardiovascular disease, preterm birth, and low birthweight. Our study helps explain one driver of these health disparities,\" says first author David Gonzalez, PhD, a President\'s Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley. \"Racially marginalized people have disproportionately high exposure to oil and gas-related contaminants, and we\'re seeing that these 80-year-old racist policies related to housing segregation and mortgage risk played a role.\"</p><p>\"Our study adds to the evidence that structural racism in federal policy is associated with the disproportionate siting of oil and gas wells in marginalized neighborhoods,\" says senior author Joan Casey, PhD, assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia Mailman School. \"These exposure disparities have implications for community environmental health, as the presence of active and inactive wells contribute to ongoing air pollution.\"</p><p>An earlier paper by Casey found that historically redlined neighborhoods are more likely to lack green space today. Other research has linked historically red-lined neighborhoods have persistent social inequities.</p><p>In the current study, researchers assessed exposure to oil and gas wells among HOLC-graded neighborhoods in 33 cities from 13 states where urban oil and gas wells were drilled and operated. Among the 17 cities for which 1940 census data were available, they compared neighborhoods that were similar on observed 1940 sociodemographic characteristics but that received different grades.</p><p>They found that number and density of oil and gas wells were linked to the HOLC score. These include wells in operation before and after the redlining maps were drawn. Two of the redlined neighborhoods with the most wells were Signal Hill and Wilmington, both in Los Angeles.</p><p>The researchers obtained digitized HOLC maps from the Mapping Inequality project at the University of Richmond. They obtained census-tract level sociodemographic data from the 1940 census from the National Historical Geographic Information System from Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. Data on oil and gas wells dating back to 1898 were obtained from Enverus Drillinglnfo, a data aggregation service.</p><p>Over the past century, redlining has been perpetuated by both private businesses and government agencies, including the HOLC, which sought to prevent mortgage foreclosures during the Great Depression. In appraising mortgage risk, HOLC staff considered neighborhood-level characteristics that included home values, whether there were industrial facilities and the presence of racially marginalized populations such as Black people and immigrants. This study showed that redlining is linked to oil and gas well exposure, potentially explaining part of the health disparities that exist today.</p><p>Co-authors include Anthony Nardone, University of California San Francisco; Andrew Nguyen, Rachel Morello-Frosch, UC Berkeley.</p><p>The National Institute of Environmental Health Science funded the study under grant ES027023, and the California Air Resources Board under grant 18RD018.</p><p>The authors declare that they have no competing interests.</p>','2022-04-13 18:16:37.118456','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Columbia University\'s Mailman School of Public Health','A new study details how historically redlined neighborhoods across the U.S. that scored lowest in racially discriminatory maps drawn by the government-sponsored Home-Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) in the 1930s had twice the density of oil and gas wells than comparable neighborhoods that scored highest. Wells likely contribute to disproportionate pollution and related health problems in redlined neighborhoods.\n',1,148,'<li>David J. X. Gonzalez, Anthony Nardone, Andrew V. Nguyen, Rachel Morello-Frosch, Joan A. Casey. <strong>Historic redlining and the siting of oil and gas wells in the United States</strong>. <em>Journal of Exposure Science &amp; Environmental Epidemiology</em>, 2022; DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41370-022-00434-9\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41370-022-00434-9</a>\n</li>'),(2096,'Real-time ultrafast humidity sensing optical sensor','real-time-ultrafast-humidity-sensing-optical-sensor','2022-04-13 18:16:43.290179',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">The Hercules beetle native to South America has a fascinating trait of changing its shell colors depending on the external humidity conditions. This is because the inside of the beetle\'s shell consists of porous lattice structure with square holes. When light of particular wavelengths hits the shell, it reflects them and displays different colors; and these wavelengths change depending on the humidity. Recently, a sensor that changes colors depending on the humidity like this beetle with 10,000 times faster speed than the conventional optical sensors has been proposed.</p><p>A POSTECH research team led by Professor Junsuk Rho (Department of Chemical Engineering and Department of Mechanical Engineering) and Ph.D. candidates Chunghwan Jung and Jaehyuck Jang (Department of Chemical Engineering), in collaboration with Sung-Hoon Hong and Dr. Soo-Jung Kim (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, ETRI) and Professor Young Min Song (Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, GIST), has developed an ultrafast humidity-responsive colorimetric sensor. The findings from the study were published in the top academic journal <em>Science Advances</em>.</p><p>Sensors using light are already being used in our daily lives, for electrocardiogram and air quality measurement. These sensors use light to detect changes in their surroundings and convert them into digital signals.</p><p>The research team fabricated a colorimetric sensor that consists of metal-hydrogel-metal structure using a disordered metal nanoparticle layer -- a chitosan hydrogel -- and a reflecting substrate. When the external humidity changes, the resonant frequency of the sensor changes due to the characteristic of the chitosan hydrogel that swells under wet state and contracts under dry state repeatedly.</p><p>This new sensor boasts an ultrafast speed that is 10,000 times faster than the conventional Fabry-Perot interferometer based optical sensors. This fast reaction speed is thanks to the porous space between the nanoparticles that make up the sensor, much like the shell of the beetle that changes colors depending on the humidity.</p><p>\"This new humidity sensor is special in that it allows scalability of production at low cost even though nanomaterials and nanostructures were used,\" explained Professor Rho who led the study. \"Introducing the humidity-responsive color pixels into security codes enables application toward security tags for humidity-sensitive electronic devices, banknotes, passports, and ID cards.</p><p>This study was conducted with the support from the Samsung Research Funding &amp; Incubation Center for Future Technology.</p>','2022-04-13 18:16:43.290179','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Pohang University of Science & Technology (POSTECH)','A research team develops a real-time humidity sensing optical sensor. The response time of the new sensor is 10,000 times faster than the conventional sensors and can be mass-produced at low cost.\n',1,27,'<li>Chunghwan Jung, Soo-Jung Kim, Jaehyuck Jang, Joo Hwan Ko, Doa Kim, Byoungsu Ko, Young Min Song, Sung-Hoon Hong, Junsuk Rho. <strong>Disordered-nanoparticle–based etalon for ultrafast humidity-responsive colorimetric sensors and anti-counterfeiting displays</strong>. <em>Science Advances</em>, 2022; 8 (10) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abm8598\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1126/sciadv.abm8598</a>\n</li>'),(2097,'A swarm of 85,000 earthquakes at the Antarctic Orca submarine volcano','a-swarm-of-85,000-earthquakes-at-the-antarctic-orca-submarine-volcano','2022-04-13 18:16:51.064205',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Volcanoes can be found even off the coast of Antarctica. At the deep-sea volcano Orca, which has been inactive for a long time, a sequence of more than 85,000 earthquakes was registered in 2020, a swarm quake that reached proportions not previously observed for this region. The fact that such events can be studied and described in great detail even in such remote and therefore poorly instrumented areas is now shown by the study of an international team published in the journal \"Communications Earth and Environment.\" Led by Simone Cesca from the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) Potsdam, researchers from Germany, Italy, Poland and the United States were involved. With the combined application of seismological, geodetic and remote sensing techniques, they were able to determine how the rapid transfer of magma from the Earth\'s mantle near the crust-mantle boundary to almost the surface led to the swarm quake.</p><p><strong>The Orca volcano between the tip of South America and Antarctica</strong></p><p>Swarm quakes mainly occur in volcanically active regions. The movement of fluids in the Earth\'s crust is therefore suspected as the cause. Orca seamount is a large submarine shield volcano with a height of about 900 metres above the sea floor and a base diameter of about 11 kilometres. It is located in the Bransfield Strait, an ocean channel between the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands, southwest of the southern tip of Argentina.</p><p>\"In the past, seismicity in this region was moderate. However, in August 2020, an intense seismic swarm began there, with more than 85,000 earthquakes within half a year. It represents the largest seismic unrest ever recorded there,\" reports Simone Cesca, scientist in GFZ\'s Section 2.1 Earthquake and Volcano Physics and lead author of the now published study. At the same time as the swarm, a lateral ground displacement of more than ten centimetres and a small uplift of about one centimetre was recorded on neighbouring King George Island.</p><p><strong>Challenges of research in a remote area</strong></p><p>Cesca studied these events with colleagues from the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics -- OGS and the University of Bologna (Italy), the Polish Academy of Sciences, Leibniz University Hannover, the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and the University of Potsdam. The challenge was that there are few conventional seismological instruments in the remote area, namely only two seismic and two GNSS stations (ground stations of the <strong>G</strong>lobal <strong>N</strong>avigation <strong>S</strong>atellite <strong>S</strong>ystem which measure ground displacement). In order to reconstruct the chronology and development of the unrest and to determine its cause, the team therefore additionally analysed data from farther seismic stations and data from InSAR satellites, which use radar interferometry to measure ground displacements. An important step was the modelling of the events with a number of geophysical methods in order to interpret the data correctly.</p><p><strong>Reconstructing the seismic events</strong></p><p>The researchers backdated the start of the unrest to 10 August 2020 and extend the original global seismic catalog, containing only 128 earthquakes, to more than 85,000 events. The swarm peaked with two large earthquakes on 2 October (Mw 5.9) and 6 November (Mw 6.0) 2020 before subsiding. By February 2021, seismic activity had decreased significantly.</p><p>The scientists identify a magma intrusion, the migration of a larger volume of magma, as the main cause of the swarm quake, because seismic processes alone cannot explain the observed strong surface deformation on King George Island. The presence of a volumetric magma intrusion can be confirmed independently on the basis of geodetic data.</p><p>Starting from its origin, seismicity first migrated upward and then laterally: deeper, clustered earthquakes are interpreted as the response to vertical magma propagation from a reservoir in the upper mantle or at the crust-mantle boundary, while shallower, crustal earthquakes extend NE-SW triggered on top of the laterally growing magma dike, which reaches a length of about 20 kilometres.</p><p>The seismicity decreased abruptly by mid November, after about three months of sustained activity, in correspondence to the occurrence of the largest earthquakes of the series, with a magnitude Mw 6.0. The end of the swarm can be explained by the loss of pressure in the magma dike, accompanying the slip of a large fault, and could mark the timing of a seafloor eruption which, however, could not yet be confirmed by other data.</p><p>By modeling GNSS and InSAR data, the scientists estimated that the volume of the Bransfield magmatic intrusion is in the range 0.26-0.56 km³. That makes this episode also the largest magmatic unrest ever geophysically monitored in Antarctica.</p><p>Simone Cesca continues: \"Our study represents a new successful investigation of a seismo-volcanic unrest at a remote location on Earth, where the combined application of seismology, geodesy and remote sensing techniques are used to understand earthquake processes and magma transport in poorly instrumented areas. This is one of the few cases where we can use geophysical tools to observe intrusion of magma from the upper mantle or crust-mantle boundary into the shallow crust -- a rapid transfer of magma from the mantle to almost the surface that takes only a few days.\"</p>','2022-04-13 18:16:51.064205','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'GFZ GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Helmholtz Centre','Volcanoes can be found even off the coast of Antarctica. At the deep-sea volcano Orca, which has been inactive for a long time, a sequence of more than 85,000 earthquakes was registered in 2020, a swarm quake that reached proportions not previously observed for this region. The fact that such events can be studied and described in great detail even in such remote and therefore poorly instrumented areas is now shown by a new study. With the combined application of seismological, geodetic and remote sensing techniques, they were able to determine how the rapid transfer of magma from the Earth\'s mantle near the crust-mantle boundary to almost the surface led to the swarm quake.\n',1,143,'<li>Simone Cesca, Monica Sugan, Łukasz Rudzinski, Sanaz Vajedian, Peter Niemz, Simon Plank, Gesa Petersen, Zhiguo Deng, Eleonora Rivalta, Alessandro Vuan, Milton Percy Plasencia Linares, Sebastian Heimann, Torsten Dahm. <strong>Massive earthquake swarm driven by magmatic intrusion at the Bransfield Strait, Antarctica</strong>. <em>Communications Earth &amp; Environment</em>, 2022; 3 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00418-5\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s43247-022-00418-5</a>\n</li>'),(2098,'Black Rhino extinction risk sharply increased by killing of specific female rhinos','black-rhino-extinction-risk-sharply-increased-by-killing-of-specific-female-rhinos','2022-04-13 18:16:54.142261',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">New research from The University of Manchester, in collaboration with Kenyan conservationists and scientists, has examined data from the Critically Endangered Kenyan black rhino populations which suggest that individuals really matter when assessing the impact of poaching on species\' survival chances.</p><p>The research published today in journal, <em>Proceedings of the Royal Society B, </em>demonstrates that poaching combined with individual rhino\'s reproductive variance, or how successful mums are at raising young, leads to a greater than first thought risk to the survival of the black rhino.</p><p>In the case of these rhino, reproductive variance increased extinction risk by as much as 70% when combined with poaching.</p><p>Within black rhino populations (and most likely in most animals), some individuals have more babies than others. This variation increases existing estimates of extinction risk, especially when there is poaching. This is because indiscriminate killing can lead to some of these important animals which contribute a greater number of offspring being removed.</p><p>Susanne Shultz, Professor of Evolutionary Ecology and conservation at The University of Manchester said: \"Preventing population declines is a crucial step for stopping biodiversity loss. In this study, we identified how losing key rhinos can make small populations very vulnerable, which can help us design more effective conservation actions.\"</p><p>The new research is important because it shows that we may underestimate risk (or overestimate viability) if we do not recognise that some individuals contribute a lot more to the population (and their loss will have a much bigger impact).</p><p>Lead author on the work, Dr Nick Harvey Sky said: \"This study shows that poaching has effects on rhinos beyond the death of targeted individuals. The deaths of healthy females that would have gone on to produce lots of calves can make whole populations more vulnerable to extinction.\"</p><p>Estimating the extinction risk faced by different populations is vital for conservation. This can be affected by differences in breeding success between individual females (called reproductive skew), but reproductive skew is not often included in predictions of future population growth because it requires detailed individual breeding histories.</p><p>This information is available for the Critically Endangered eastern black rhino because of intensive monitoring to protect them from poaching. The University of Manchester has collaborated closely with Kenyan rhino managers, scientists and security teams who have meticulously recorded births and deaths for decades. Across three Kenyan populations of black rhinos on Lew Wildlife Conservancy, Ol Pejeta Conservancy and Ol Jogi Wildlife Conservancy, the researchers found that there is significant variation in breeding success between females, with many females not breeding or doing so very slowly.</p><p>Dr John Jackson, Post-doctoral researcher at the University of Oxford said: \"For me, our study really highlights a deadly combination of small populations, individual differences, and poaching for vulnerable populations. When working in combination, these factors can completely reshape the fate of an endangered species.\"</p><p>Crucially, variation in female breeding success can exacerbate the effects of poaching, especially on small populations. If key individuals, ones that breed very well, are killed then it can make the whole population more vulnerable to extinction. This highlights how important it is to protect rhinos from poaching. It may be possible to even out the variation in breeding success by creating new rhino reserves, moving rhinos between current reserves, or even creating more valuable habitat, but the causes of reproductive skew must first be identified. Differences between individuals in their contribution of young to at risk populations is likely an issue across many more species and should be evaluated when assessing their risk of extinction.</p>','2022-04-13 18:16:54.142261','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'University of Manchester','New research has examined data from the Critically Endangered Kenyan black rhino populations which suggest that individuals really matter when assessing the impact of poaching on species\' survival chances.\n',1,55,'<li>Nick Harvey Sky, John Jackson, Geoffrey Chege, Jamie Gaymer, David Kimiti, Samuel Mutisya, Simon Nakito, Susanne Shultz. <strong>Female reproductive skew exacerbates the extinction risk from poaching in the eastern black rhino</strong>. <em>Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences</em>, 2022; 289 (1972) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0075\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1098/rspb.2022.0075</a>\n</li>'),(2099,'Groundwater level threatens to fall in Germany due to climate change','groundwater-level-threatens-to-fall-in-germany-due-to-climate-change','2022-04-13 18:16:56.329706',' <p class=\"lead\" id=\"first\">Climate change directly affects groundwater resources. Groundwater levels in Germany threaten to fall in the next decades. This is the result of a study made by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR). It is now published in <em>Nature Communications. </em></p><p>Experts from BGR and KIT used AI-based forecast models to find out how climate change will affect groundwater resources in Germany in the 21<sup>st</sup> century. They applied deep learning methods to assess on the basis of groundwater data from all over the Germany the development of groundwater levels for different locations and climate scenarios defined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). These scenarios ranged from an assumed increase of global mean temperature by less than 2 degrees Celsius until 2100, the target defined by the Paris Climate Agreement, to a moderate scenario (plus 2.6 degrees) to the so-called business-as-usual scenario that is based on the absence of any climate protection measures and an increase in temperature by up to 5 degrees compared to the pre-industrial level. \"Our scientific study exclusively covered direct climatic impacts and changes. Anthropogenic factors, such as groundwater extraction, were not considered,\" says Andreas Wunsch from KIT\'s Institute of Applied Geosciences (AGW), first author of the study.</p><p><strong>Forecasts Reveal: Falling Groundwater Levels Are Independent of the Scenario</strong></p><p>According to the experts, all three climate scenarios studied lead to more or less strong developments with droughts, falling groundwater levels, and a changed water availability. While less pronounced trends were obtained for the two more optimistic scenarios, KIT and BGR experts found a trend towards significantly falling groundwater levels at most locations for the strongest of the three warming scenarios. \"The results of this prognosis are particularly relevant to the near future, as this scenario is closest to today\'s situation,\" says Dr. Tanja Liesch, AGW.</p><p>\"Future negative impacts will be particularly visible in North and East Germany, where the corresponding developments have already started. Here, longer periods of low groundwater levels threaten to occur by the end of the century in particular,\" says Dr. Stefan Broda, BGR. For the two weaker warming scenarios, this trend is not that severe. KIT and BGR experts think that this indicates that the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions may have a positive impact on future groundwater levels.</p><p>The published results were obtained within the BGR project MENTOR that is aimed at developing an AI-based method for nationwide forecast of groundwater levels.</p>','2022-04-13 18:16:56.329706','uploads/news/logo.jpg',1,'Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)','Climate change directly affects groundwater resources. Groundwater levels in Germany threaten to fall in the next decades.\n',1,27,'<li>Andreas Wunsch, Tanja Liesch, Stefan Broda. <strong>Deep learning shows declining groundwater levels in Germany until 2100 due to climate change</strong>. <em>Nature Communications</em>, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28770-2\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">10.1038/s41467-022-28770-2</a>\n</li>'),