An international team of scientists found a way to improve battery design that could produce safer, more powerful lithium batteries. The team used quasi-elastic neutron scattering at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to set the first benchmark, one-nanosecond, or one billionth of a second, for a mixture of lithium salt and an organic polymer electrolyte. “It all comes down to the study of materials,” said Eugene Mamontov, ORNL Chemical Spectroscopy group leader. “And polymer electrolytes won’t catch fire the way liquid electrolytes do in lithium batteries.” The team used the neutron technique to validate computer ...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) currently afflicts nearly seven million people in the U.S. With this number expected to grow to nearly 13 million by 2050, the lack of meaningful therapies represents a major unmet medical need. Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys have now identified promising real-world links between common HIV drugs and a reduced incidence of AD. The study, led by Jerold Chun, M.D., Ph.D., was published in Pharmaceuticals. Chun’s new research builds on his lab’s landmark ...

John Turner, Professor, Religious Studies, is set to receive funding for: “Israel Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship.”  This funding will support a postdoctoral teaching fellow for three (3) academic years starting in fall 2024. Regarding the importance of this funding, Turner said, “Curricula across academic units at George Mason contain very little material about the modern State of Israel, a significant gap given the importance of the nation and region to contemporary politics and conflict. This grant will enable RELI to address this gap and add content on this important subject.” Turner will receive $248,460 from Israel ...

With large language models that take notes during patient visits and algorithms that identify disease, artificial intelligence has begun to prove its worth as an assistant for physicians. But a new study from Stanford Medicine shows the potential of AI as a facilitator — one that helps doctors and nurses connect to achieve more efficient, effective patient care. The study, which published in JAMA Internal Medicine last month, describes an AI-based model in use at Stanford Hospital that ...

Pollinators are declining rapidly, largely due to land conversion and intensification of agriculture. To mitigate their crisis, low-disturbance habitats, such as sown wildflower plantings (commonly known forms are wildflower strips at the edges of arable fields), could promote pollinators by restoration of their resources (food, sheltering and nesting habitats). However, comprehensive knowledge is lacking on how landscape context, spatial configuration and age of wildflower plantings, seasonality and flower composition affect pollinator communities, especially from East-Central Europe. To understand these effects, researchers from the HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research, established ...

In a new study, a Johns Hopkins Medicine-led research team reports that social stress during adolescence in female mice later results in prolonged elevation of the hormone cortisol after they give birth. The researchers say this corresponds to the equivalent hormonal changes in postpartum women who were exposed to adverse early life experiences — suggesting that early life stress may underlie a pathophysiological exacerbation of postpartum depression (PPD).  The team’s findings, first published online Apr. 11, 2024, in Nature Mental Health, also suggest that current drug ...

LAWRENCE —  A book co-edited by a University of Kansas scholar that collects the experiences and know-how of younger Indigenous archaeologists, titled “Indigenizing Archaeology: Putting Theory into Practice,” is newly published by the University Press of Florida.   Carlton Shield Chief Gover, acting assistant professor of anthropology and acting assistant curator of archaeology at KU, conceived and co-edited the new volume. Its chapters include lessons and case studies from the discipline.  “This is the first book to our knowledge completely comprised of Indigenous scholars in ...

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (April 16, 2024) — A new study from Van Andel Institute scientists offers a first look into the complex molecular changes that occur in brain cells with Lewy bodies, which are key pathological hallmarks of Parkinson’s disease and some dementias. The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, reveal that brain cells with Lewy bodies exhibit a specific gene expression pattern akin to a disease-related fingerprint. “We’ve long known that Lewy bodies play a role in Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases but there are still many ...

Most people do not give the U.S. electric grid a second thought — we flip a switch and the lights come on. Behind the scenes are thousands of power plants and utilities linked by millions of miles of transmission lines. And to make raw electricity useful, grid transformers convert high voltage to lower voltage that millions of households can plug into.  Transformers are aging and approaching an average of being 30 to 40 years old. Plus, they face more stress than ever before brought on by factors such as renewable energy and by extreme weather events such as hurricanes, heat waves, and winter storms.  Case in point — the 2021 event in Texas that ...

CORVALLIS, Oregon – An Oregon State University researcher who made color history in 2009 with a vivid blue pigment has developed durable, reddish magentas inspired by lunar mineralogy and ancient Egyptian chemistry. Mas Subramanian, distinguished professor of chemistry, and collaborators at OSU report the findings of the study, funded by the National Science Foundation, in the journal Chemistry of Materials. The new pigments, which could be used as energy-efficient coatings for vehicles and buildings, are based on divalent chromium, Cr2+,  and are ...

Toronto, ON - A new research study out of the University of Toronto sheds light on the intricate relationship between conformity to masculine gender norms and muscle dysmorphia symptomatology among a diverse sample of Canadian adolescents and young adults. The study entitled "Exploring the Association Between Conformity to Masculine Gender Norms and Muscle Dysmorphia Symptomatology in a Gender-Diverse Canadian Population" was recently published in the journal Sex Roles. Muscle dysmorphia, characterized ...

- Euvichol-S, developed jointly by EuBiologics and IVI, improves productivity by approximately 40% over Euvichol-Plus® - Production and supply of Euvichol-S expected to help address cholera vaccine shortages   April 15, 2024, SEOUL, Republic of Korea – EuBiologics and the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) announced that Euvichol-S, an improved oral cholera vaccine (OCV) developed jointly by EuBiologics and IVI, has achieved World Health Organization prequalification (PQ). Euvichol-S ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Large language model GPT-4 matched the performance of radiologists in detecting errors in radiology reports, according to research published today in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Errors in radiology reports may occur due to resident-to-attending discrepancies, speech recognition inaccuracies and high workload. Large language models, such as GPT-4, have the potential to enhance the report generation process. “Our research offers a novel examination of the potential of OpenAI’s GPT-4,” said study lead author Roman J. Gertz, M.D., resident in the Department ...

SAN ANTONIO — August 16, 2024 —Southwest Research Institute helps the automotive industry transition to smart, sustainable mobility, developing hybrid, electric and hydrogen solutions and applying artificial intelligence for safe, eco-friendly driving. SwRI engineers will be in Detroit April 16-18 to share their expertise at the 2024 SAE International WCX™ World Congress Experience. WCX invites mechanical, electrical and software engineers working in mobility from around the world to share new knowledge and advancements. “The automotive and transportation sectors are going through tremendous change and challenges as they navigate ...

A component of the human intestinal flora that has been little studied to date is the focus of a new study. Plasmids are small extrachromosomal genetic elements that frequently occur in bacterial cells and can influence microbial lifestyles – yet their diversity in natural habitats is poorly understood. An international team led by Prof. Dr. A. Murat Eren from the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity at the University of Oldenburg (HIFMB) reports in the science journal Cell, a mysterious plasmid, is one of the most numerous genetic elements in the human gut that could potentially serve as a powerful biomarker for identifying ...

Shipowners around the world are in a very difficult position, because they are having to order new ships now that will run on fuel and technologies that are not yet fully developed. A new study suggests that ammonia could be a smart and energy-efficient fuel in the race to achieve net zero in shipping. Researchers at the Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management (IØT) and the Department of Marine Technology (IMT) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) ...

From rising temperatures and altered precipitation patterns to intense weather events such as hurricanes, Florida is experiencing significant climate-related challenges in tandem with skyrocketing insurance rates. As the state’s population continues to surge by 1,000 new residents a day, it is projected to lose 3.5 million acres of land to development by 2070, threatening Florida’s future ability to maintain biodiversity and ecosystem services. A first-of-its-kind study highlights how Florida can buffer itself against both climate change ...

In their ongoing quest to develop a range of methods for managing plasma so it can be used to generate electricity in a process known as fusion, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have shown how two old methods can be combined to provide greater flexibility.  While the two methods – known as electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) and applying resonant magnetic perturbations (RMP) – have long been studied, this is the first time researchers have simulated how they can be used together to ...

Each summer, a hypoxic dead zone forms in the Gulf of Mexico, making some marine habitats unlivable. The dead zone is caused by nutrients—primarily from agricultural fertilizers—flowing into the Gulf from the Mississippi River. Restoring wetlands at field margins has been proposed to intercept some of the runoff, as wetland plants and soils are capable of absorbing nutrients like a living sponge. But estimates of nutrient removal by restored wetlands have varied widely. Shan Zuidema and colleagues took a whole-system approach to modeling the potential for wetlands to ameliorate the flow of nitrate to the ...

A high-profile study made headlines in 2023 stating that the scientific and innovation system is producing less and less completely new knowledge. Researchers at the University of Basel are now refuting this claim, at least for patents: It is based on a measurement error. The discovery of mRNA in the 1960s was groundbreaking. Suddenly there were completely new findings that ushered in new developments. This kind of discovery is described as “disruptive”. In contrast, research findings are “consolidating” when they build upon existing knowledge. They are also important, as the example of the ...

The fall armyworm is a destructive corn pest, which recently arrived in Africa and Asia from the Americas and began causing major yield losses and increased use of insecticides, which pose environmental and human health risks. Entomopathogenic nematodes are soil-dwelling roundworms that can parasitize and kill fall armyworms with no risks to people or the environment, but application can be tricky because the nematodes are susceptible to desiccation and UV radiation from sunlight. Patrick Fallet and colleagues report success using an innocuous biodegradable ...

In the field of organic chemistry, scientists are always looking out for new types of reactions to unlock synthesis routes for challenging compounds. Most of the progress that we have witnessed in pharmaceutics and agrochemicals over the past few decades can be traced back to the discovery of novel practical reaction pathways. Such pathways often involve the selective replacement of a functional group with another, the formation of aromatic rings, or the strategic cleaving of parts of a molecule. But what about the rearrangement of existing functional groups within a molecule? Also known as ‘substituent ...

The connection that infants form with their parents or caregivers is crucial for their cognitive, social, and emotional development. These attachments vary in quality, depending on how caregivers respond to the infant's needs. When caregivers are attentive, infants are likely to develop secure attachments. However, if caregivers neglect their needs, infants may develop insecurity, leading to challenges in emotional development and difficulty in forming healthy relationships later in life.   To understand how parenting influences attachment formation and child development, researchers led by Associate Professor Atsuko ...

HOUSTON and TÜBINGEN, Germany ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and CureVac N.V. today announced a co-development and licensing agreement to develop novel mRNA-based cancer vaccines. The collaboration creates strong synergies between CureVac’s unique end-to-end capabilities for cancer antigen discovery, mRNA design, and manufacturing and MD Anderson’s expertise in cancer antigen discovery and validation, translational drug development, and clinical research. The collaboration will focus on the development of differentiated cancer vaccine ...

PULLMAN, Wash. –  Some of the world's deadliest bacteria seek out and feed on human blood, a newly-discovered phenomenon researchers are calling “bacterial vampirism.” A team led by Washington State University researchers have found the bacteria are attracted to the liquid part of blood, or serum, which contains nutrients the bacteria can use as food. One of the chemicals the bacteria seemed particularly drawn to was serine, an amino acid found in human blood that is also a common ingredient in protein drinks. The research finding, published in the journal eLife, provides new insights into how bloodstream infections ...