New material for catholytes and anolytes in organic redox flow batteries

A new U.S. Geological Survey study provides an updated, statewide estimate of high levels of naturally occurring arsenic and uranium in private well water across Connecticut. This research builds on a USGS report published in 2017, with the new study including additional groundwater samples and focusing on previously underrepresented areas. The research, undertaken in cooperation with the Connecticut Department of Public Health, projects that approximately 3.9% of private wells across Connecticut contain water with arsenic at concentrations higher than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's maximum contaminant level for ...

Sea urchins receive a lot of attention in California. Red urchins support a thriving fishery, while their purple cousins are often blamed for mowing down kelp forests to create urchin barrens. Yet for all the notice we pay them, we know surprisingly little about the microbiomes that support these spiny species. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara led by geneticist Paige Miller sought to uncover the diversity within the guts of these important kelp forest inhabitants. Their results reveal significant differences between the microbiota of the two species, as well as between individuals living ...

Philadelphia, April 6, 2021 - Since the discovery of leptin in the 1990s, researchers have wondered, how does leptin, a hormone made by body fat, suppress appetite? Despite tremendous gains in the intervening three decades, many questions still remain. Now, a new study in mice describes novel neurocircuitry between midbrain structures that control feeding behaviors that are under modulatory control by leptin. The study appears in Biological Psychiatry, published by Elsevier. John Krystal, MD, Editor of Biological Psychiatry, said of the findings, "Omrani and colleagues shed light on how, in non-obese animals, leptin puts the brakes on overeating." Leptin acts as a critical link between the body and the brain, providing information about metabolic ...

In addition to smoothing out wrinkles, researchers have found that the drug Botox can reveal the inner workings of the brain. A new study used it to show that feedback from individual nerve cells controls the release of dopamine, a chemical messenger involved in motivation, memory, and movement. Such "self-regulation," the researchers say, stands in contrast to the widely held view that the release of dopamine -- known as the "feel good" hormone -- by any cell relied on messages from nearby cells to recognize that it is releasing too much of the hormone. Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, ...

WASHINGTON, April 6, 2021 -- Scientists from MIT and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras have grown small amounts of self-organizing brain tissue, known as organoids, in a tiny 3D-printed system that allows observation while they grow and develop. The work is reported in Biomicrofluidics, by AIP Publishing. Current technology for real-time observation of growing organoids involves the use of commercial culture dishes with many wells in a glass-bottomed plate placed under a microscope. The plates are costly and only compatible with specific microscopes. They do not allow for the flow or replenishment of a nutrient medium to the growing tissue. Recent advances have used a technique known as microfluidics, where a nutrient ...

WASHINGTON, April 6, 2021 -- Cryocoolers are ultracold refrigeration units used in surgery and drug development, semiconductor fabrication, and spacecraft. They can be tubes, pumps, tabletop sizes, or larger refrigerator systems. The regenerative heat exchanger, or regenerator, is a core component of cryocoolers. At temperatures below 10 kelvins (-441.67 degrees Fahrenheit), performance drops precipitously, with maximum regenerator loss of more than 50%. In their paper, published in Applied Physics Letters, by AIP Publishing, researchers at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences used ...

WASHINGTON, April 6, 2021 -- Dragonfly wings, lotus leaves, cicada wings -- thanks to millennia of evolution, nature has optimized the ways these surfaces and others behave to offer antibacterial functionality. An international, interdisciplinary team of researchers is trying to find the best way to translate these features to create nature-inspired bactericidal surfaces for use in medical implants. They discuss the surface structures and chemical compositions for an ideal implant material in the journal Applied Physics Reviews, from AIP Publishing. "Objects in ...

What The Study Did: Researchers compared the effectiveness of case-based (including contact tracing and quarantine) and population-based (including social distancing and facial masking) interventions for COVID-19 containment in Taiwan, one of the few countries with initial success in COVID-19 control without strict lockdown or school closure. Authors: Hsien-Ho Lin, M.D., Sc.D., of National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.1644) Editor's Note: The article includes conflicts of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including ...

What The Study Did: This study investigated the role of droplet or contact transmission in the development of Kawasaki disease in Japan during the COVID-19 state of emergency. Kawasaki disease primarily affects children and is characterized by fever and swelling in the walls of some blood vessels. Authors: Toshiro Hara, M.D., Ph.D., of the Fukuoka Children's Hospital in Fukuoka, Japan, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.4475) Editor's Note: The article includes conflicts of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, ...

What The Study Did: A model to prioritize vaccination was developed that estimates the risk of SARS-CoV-2-related death among enrollees in the Veterans Affairs health care system. Authors: George N. Ioannou, B.M.B.Ch., M.S., of the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Healthcare System in Seattle, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.4347) Editor's Note: The article includes conflicts of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support. INFORMATION: Media ...