The connections between the nervous system and muscles develop differently across the kingdom of life. It takes newborn humans roughly a year to develop the proper muscular systems that support the ability to walk, while cows can walk mere minutes after birth and run not long after. University of California San Diego researchers, using powerful new visualization technologies, now have a clear picture of why these two scenarios develop so differently. The results offer new insight into understanding muscle contraction in humans that may help in developing future treatments for muscular diseases. “In this study we set out to understand ...

In a recent study published in Engineering, a research team from the Shenzhen Engineering Research Laboratory for Sludge and Food Waste Treatment and Resource Recovery has introduced a pioneering method to tackle the critical global issue of phosphorus (P) scarcity. Their innovative approach leverages municipal wastewater to produce phosphorus vital for the manufacture of lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries, a key component in the rapidly growing electric vehicle market. As the demand for LiFePO4 batteries ...

SAN ANTONIO — July 31, 2024 —Southwest Research Institute will provide engineering and equipment support for advanced cryptologic technology for shipboard and airborne platforms as part of a $35.7 million contract with the U.S. Navy. The five-year contract will deliver services from June 2024 through June 2029, with the option for the U.S. Navy to add $14 million and extend the contract through 2031. SwRI develops electronic warfare (EW) technology to detect, intercept and disrupt a range of signals on the electromagnetic spectrum, supporting efforts to thwart ...

With numerous species facing extinction, an international team of researchers has proposed an innovative solution to protect the planet's biodiversity: a lunar biorepository. This concept, detailed in a recent article in the journal BioScience, is aimed at creating a passive, long-lasting storage facility for cryopreserved samples of Earth's most at-risk animal species. Led by Dr. Mary Hagedorn of the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, the team envisions taking advantage of the Moon's naturally cold temperatures, particularly in permanently shadowed regions near the poles, where temperatures remain consistently below –196 degrees ...

Heavy rain and flooding in Brazil in November could tell forecasters whether December, January and February in Britain will be cold and dry or mild and wet.    This is because forecasting European winter weather patterns months in advance is made simpler during years of strong El Niño or La Niña events in the tropical Pacific Ocean, a new study has found.   A strong El Nino or La Nina in the Pacific Ocean can bring big changes in temperatures, wind patterns and rainfall patterns to South America. When ...

HOUSTON ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and collaborators are initiating a research project that will send T cells to the International Space Station (ISS) to study the effects of prolonged microgravity on cell differentiation, activation, memory and exhaustion. These results will be further analyzed on Earth to uncover signaling pathways and identify potential immune targets that can improve treatment strategies for patients with cancer and other diseases. To accomplish this work, MD Anderson researchers ...

Chameleon, led by Senior Scientist Kate Keahey from Argonne National Laboratory, has been a cornerstone of CS research and education for nearly a decade. The platform has served over 10,000 users, contributing to more than 700 research publications. Chameleon has now secured an additional $12 million in funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to roll out its next four-year phase. With this new funding, Chameleon will continue to innovate and support its growing community, enabling groundbreaking discoveries in CS systems research. ABOUT CHAMELEON: A PLATFORM FOR INNOVATION Chameleon is a large-scale, deeply reconfigurable experimental ...

When performing resistance training such as lifting weights, there’s a lot of interest in how close you push yourself to failure – the point where you can’t do another rep – and how it affects your results. While research has looked at this concept in different ways, to date, no meta-analysis has explored the pattern (i.e., linear or non-linear) of how the distance from failure (measured by repetitions in reserve) affects changes in muscle strength and size. As such, it’s ...

Neurotransmitter levels in the brain can indicate brain health and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. However, the protective blood-brain barrier (BBB) makes delivering fluorescent sensors that can detect these small molecules to the brain difficult. Now, researchers in ACS Central Science demonstrate a way of packaging these sensors for easy passage across the BBB in mice, allowing for improved brain imaging. With further development, the technology could help advance Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis and treatment. It is common for neurotransmitter levels ...

Millions of Americans take anticoagulants, commonly known as blood thinners. These medications work to prevent blood clots that cause heart attack and stroke.  More than two-thirds of those people take a type of blood thinner called a direct oral anticoagulant. DOACs, such as rivaroxaban (brand name Xarelto) and apixaban (brand name Eliquis), are under- or over-prescribed in up to one in eight patents. These prescribing issues can have life threatening consequences, and they most often occur after a provider writes the initial prescription, according to a study led by Michigan Medicine.  “Direct oral anticoagulants may be viewed ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic scientists are using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to analyze electroencephalogram (EEG) tests more quickly and precisely, enabling neurologists to find early signs of dementia among data that typically go unexamined. The century-old EEG, during which a dozen or more electrodes are stuck to the scalp to monitor brain activity, is often used to detect epilepsy. Its results are interpreted by neurologists and other experts trained to spot patterns among the test's squiggly waves. In new research published in Brain Communications, scientists at the Mayo Clinic Neurology AI Program (NAIP) demonstrate ...

According to a World Health Organization (WHO) study (2017), about half of all infertility is due to men. Semen analysis is considered essential for diagnosis of male infertility, but is not readily available at medical institutions other than those specializing in infertility treatment, and there is a high threshold for receiving it.   In this study, a group led by Associate Professor Hideyuki Kobayashi of the Department of Urology, Toho University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan developed an AI model that can predict the risk ...

Researchers at the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with collaborators from leading international institutions, have introduced an innovative cathode homogenization strategy for all-solid-state lithium batteries (ASLBs). This new approach, detailed in their recent publication in Nature Energy on July 31, significantly improves the cycle life and energy density of ASLBs, representing an important advancement in energy storage technology. Current ASLBs face challenges due to heterogeneous composite cathodes, which require ...

Glioblastomas are highly aggressive, usually incurable brain tumors. If all therapeutic options are exhausted, patients have an average life expectancy of less than two years. Now researchers from the German Cancer Consortium (DKTK) at the West German Tumor Center Essen have made a surprising discovery: in the vicinity of glioblastomas, they found islands of highly potent immune cells in the neighboring bone marrow of the skull, which play a central role in defending against cancer. The new data may open up prospects ...

Early detection of Alzheimer’s disease-related changes in Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies could be made possible by monitoring the amyloid-β (Aβ) and phosphorylated tau (p-tau) proteins. Researchers at Nagoya University in Japan also discovered the blood levels of neurofilament light chain (NfL) protein is elevated at an early stage of Parkinson's disease (PD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). This discovery may provide a method to identify potential patients and to make early interventions. The findings were published in npj Parkinson’s Disease.    The two forms of Lewy body disease are PD and DLB. ...

TORONTO, ON – A recent study of more than 2,700 older Canadians reported older adults with diabetes faced a heightened risk of depression during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this cohort, almost 50% of those who had a pre-pandemic history of depression experienced depression during the pandemic. Those who experienced loneliness were among the most impacted. “During the pandemic, loneliness almost tripled the risk of depression in older adults with diabetes,” says clinical pharmacist and first author ZhiDi Deng. “This not only highlights ...

In a hopeful sign for demand for more safe, effective antibiotics for humans, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have leveraged artificial intelligence to develop a new drug that already is showing promise in animal trials. Publishing their results in Nature Biomedical Engineering, the scientists describe using a large language model—an AI tool like the one that powers ChatGPT—to engineer a version of a bacteria-killing drug that was previously toxic in humans, so that it would be safe to use. The prognosis for patients ...

For Embargoed Release: July 31, 2024 at 3:00 am ET USA   Media Contact: Katelyn Deckelbaum, katelyn.deckelbaum@gwu.edu and Kathy Fackelmann, kfackelmann@gwu.edu   Study Finds Many Cocoa Products Contaminated by Heavy Metals Dark chocolate lovers may want to limit their consumption to an ounce a day to stay on the safe side, according to the authors WASHINGTON (July 24, 2024) - A new study from George Washington University found a disquieting percentage of cocoa products in the U.S. contain heavy metals that exceed guidelines, including higher concentrations in organic products. GW researchers analyzed ...

Monarch butterflies, with their striking orange and black wings, are some of the most recognizable butterflies in North America. But they're in trouble. Monarch caterpillars can only eat the leaves of milkweed, a native wildflower. As milkweed has disappeared, so have the monarchs, to the point that they're at risk of extinction. Research shows that planting milkweed in home gardens can add significant monarch habitat to the landscape. In a new study in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, ...

Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have created sheets of transition metal chalcogenide “cubes” connected by chlorine atoms. While sheets of atoms have been widely studied e.g. graphene, the team’s work breaks new ground by using clusters instead. The team succeeded in forming nanoribbons inside carbon nanotubes for structural characterization, while also forming microscale sheets of cubes which could be exfoliated and probed. These were shown to be an excellent catalyst for generating hydrogen. Two-dimensional materials are a breakthrough in nanotechnology, realizing ...

LOS ANGELES — Keck Hospital of USC earned five stars, the highest rating possible, on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) 2024 quality star rating report. This is the second year in a row the hospital has received five stars.  Only approximately 16% of hospitals across the country, 483 out of 3,076, received five stars out of a one-to-five-star rating system.   “Receiving this prestigious recognition for the second time in a row validates the hospital’s continuous commitment to patient safety and best patient outcomes and is a testament to the dedication and hard ...

Led by University of Melbourne theoretician and HPC expert Associate Professor Giuseppe Barca, a research team has achieved the first quantum simulation of biological systems at a scale necessary to accurately model drug performance. Utilising the unprecedented “exascale” power of the Frontier supercomputer at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility in Tennessee, US, the team has developed groundbreaking software capable of accurately predicting the chemical reactions and physical properties of molecular systems comprising ...

A study published in the June 2024 issue of the journal Pedosphere looks at how a non-native armored scale insect alters the leaf litter decomposition dynamics of the novel host cycad species in newly invaded islands. The scale insect, known as cycad aulacaspis scale, or CAS, has been invading new territories around the globe for decades, killing the resident cultivated and natural cycad populations. Non-native insect herbivores that invade island communities often threaten native plants that serve as newly discovered hosts. The scientific community often quantifies plant ...

In a pioneering development for the biomedical field, a research team led by Yuanjin Zhao from Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, China, has published a research article in Engineering. The article, titled “Controllable Histotomy Based on Hierarchical Magnetic Microneedle Array Robots,” introduces a novel technique for tissue slicing and cultivation that could revolutionize the way primary tissues are handled in clinical settings. The in vitro cultivation of patient-derived tissues is crucial for accurate diagnosis, precision medication, individualized therapy, and tissue engineering. However, current tissue slicing and cultivation techniques often fall ...

Gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors can now be grown without ammonia, a toxic chemical that needs a sophisticated detoxifying system before it can be released into the atmosphere. The new technique is not only more environmentally friendly but also allows for the efficient and high-quality growth of crystals at a lower cost. Scientists can make semiconductors more efficiently with a reduced need for raw materials and power. Researchers from Nagoya University in Japan led the study, which was published in Scientific Reports.  GaN is a compound made up of gallium (Ga) and nitrogen ...