New machine learning method accurately predicts battery state of health

Washington, DC (April 9, 2021) -- The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) and the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) announce the concurrent publication of "Special Article: Reassessing the Inclusion of Race in Diagnosing Kidney Diseases: An Interim Report from the NKF-ASN Task Force" in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN) and the American Journal of Kidney Diseases (AJKD). The publication in JASN and AJKD provides an essential review of the many challenges relative to identifying and implementing alternative methods to diagnosing kidney diseases. Last month, ASN and NKF asserted that race modifiers should not be included in equations used to estimate kidney function. ASN and ...

A tiny protein of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that gives rise to COVID-19, may have big implications for future treatments, according to a team of Penn State researchers. Using a novel toolkit of approaches, the scientists uncovered the first full structure of the Nucleocapsid (N) protein and discovered how antibodies from COVID-19 patients interact with that protein. They also determined that the structure appears similar across many coronaviruses, including recent COVID-19 variants -- making it an ideal target for advanced treatments and vaccines. They reported their results in Nanoscale. "We discovered new features about the N protein structure that could have large implications in antibody testing ...

Since 2016, a federal regulation has allowed nurse practitioners and physician assistants to obtain a waiver to prescribe buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid use disorder as a medication assisted treatment. But a recent study by Indiana University researchers found the bill, called the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), has not greatly increased the amount of nurse practitioners prescribing buprenorphine, especially in states that have further restrictions. The study was published in Medical Care Research and Review. "Nurse practitioners and physician assistants are an important workforce with a capacity to expand treatment access for those with substance use disorders," said Kosali Simon, ...

Michigan State University's Witold Nazarewicz has a simple way to describe the complex work he does at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (frib.msu.edu), or FRIB. "I study theoretical nuclear physics," said Nazarewicz, John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of Physics and chief scientist at FRIB. "Nuclear theorists want to know what makes the nucleus tick." There is a nucleus in every atom. Atoms, in turn, make up matter -- the stuff we interact with every day. But the nucleus is still shrouded in mystery. One of FRIB's goals in creating rare isotopes, or different forms of elements, is to better understand what's going on inside the cores of atoms. In a new paper for END ...

Led by a South African team at the South African Medical Research Council Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science (PRICELESS-SA) in the School of Public Health at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Wits), and the University of the Western Cape, in partnership with the University of North Carolina, USA, the study was published on 8 April in The Lancet Planetary Health. South Africa faces an increasing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and cancers - diseases that can be linked to increased consumption of sugar, particularly ...

A clean energy future propelled by hydrogen fuel depends on figuring out how to reliably and efficiently split water. That's because, even though hydrogen is abundant, it must be derived from another substance that contains it -- and today, that substance is often methane gas. Scientists are seeking ways to isolate this energy-carrying element without using fossil fuels. That would pave the way for hydrogen-fueled cars, for example, that emit only water and warm air at the tailpipe. Water, or H2O, unites hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen atoms in the form of molecular hydrogen must be separated out from this compound. That process depends on a key -- but often slow -- step: the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The OER is what frees up molecular ...

Amsterdam, April 9, 2021 -- This study builds upon two earlier published studies (Mold et al., 2020, Journal of Alzheimer's Disease Reports) from the same group. The new data, also published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease Reports, demonstrate that aluminum is co-located with phosphorylated tau protein, present as tangles within neurons in the brains of early-onset or familial Alzheimer's disease (AD). "The presence of these tangles is associated with neuronal cell death, and observations of aluminum in these tangles may highlight a role for aluminum in their formation," explained lead investigator Matthew John Mold, PhD, Birchall Centre, Lennard-Jones ...

The properties of carbon-based nanomaterials can be altered and engineered through the deliberate introduction of certain structural "imperfections" or defects. The challenge, however, is to control the number and type of these defects. In the case of carbon nanotubes - microscopically small tubular compounds that emit light in the near-infrared - chemists and materials scientists at Heidelberg University led by Prof. Dr Jana Zaumseil have now demonstrated a new reaction pathway to enable such defect control. It results in specific optically active defects - so-called sp3 defects - which are more luminescent and can emit single photons, that is, particles of light. The efficient ...

A new study using human genetics suggests researchers should prioritize clinical trials of drugs that target two proteins to manage COVID-19 in its early stages. The findings appeared online in the journal Nature Medicine in March 2021. Based on their analyses, the researchers are calling for prioritizing clinical trials of drugs targeting the proteins IFNAR2 and ACE2. The goal is to identify existing drugs, either FDA-approved or in clinical development for other conditions, that can be repurposed for the early management of COVID-19. Doing so, they say, will help keep people with the virus from being hospitalized. IFNAR2 is the target ...

PHILADELPHIA - Psychosocial stress - typically resulting from difficulty coping with challenging environments - may work synergistically to put women at significantly higher risk of developing coronary heart disease, according to a study by researchers at Drexel University's Dornsife School of Public Health, recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The study specifically suggests that the effects of job strain and social strain -- the negative aspect of social relationships -- on women is a powerful one-two punch. Together they are associated with a 21% higher risk of developing coronary heart disease. Job strain ...