About The Study: This nonrandomized controlled trial of 108 patients with advanced Parkinson disease found that at 5-year follow-up quality of life remained stable in the deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN-DBS) group and worsened in the standard-of-care medication group, mainly driven by the favorable effect of STN-DBS on mobility. These findings may provide helpful information when counseling patients on the efficacy of STN-DBS for Parkinson disease and monitoring patients postoperatively in long-term follow-up. Authors: Stefanie T. Jost, Ph.D., and Haidar S. Dafsari, M.D., of the University of Cologne, Germany, are the corresponding ...

Philadelphia, PA (January 18, 2024) – Understanding why we overeat unhealthy foods has been a long-standing mystery. While we know food's strong power influences our choices, the precise circuitry in our brains behind this is unclear. The vagus nerve sends internal sensory information from the gut to the brain about the nutritional value of food. But, the molecular basis of the reward in the brain associated with what we eat has been incompletely understood.  Now, a new study published in Cell Metabolism by a team from the ...

What did people eat on the west coast of Scandinavia 10 000 years ago? A new study of the DNA in a chewing gum shows that deer, trout and hazelnuts were on the diet. It also shows that one of the individuals had severe problems with her teeth. Some 9 700 years ago, a group of people were camping on the west coast of Scandinavia, north of what is today Göteborg. They had been fishing, hunting and collecting resources for food. And some teenagers, both boys and girls, were chewing resin to produce glue, just after ...

1. A research team consisting of the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) and Softbank Corp. has found that voltage hysteresis in Li2RuO3—a high-energy-density rechargeable battery cathode material—is caused by differences in the intermediate crystalline phases formed during charge and discharge processes. Voltage hysteresis is a phenomenon detrimental to lithium (Li)-ion batteries in which discharge voltage becomes significantly lower than charge voltage. These results revealed a voltage-hysteresis-causing mechanism inconsistent with conventional theory.   2. ...

In the switch to “greener” energy sources, the demand for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries is surging. However, their cathodes typically contain cobalt — a metal whose extraction has high environmental and societal costs. Now, researchers in ACS Central Science report evaluating an earth-abundant, carbon-based cathode material that could replace cobalt and other scarce and toxic metals without sacrificing lithium-ion battery performance. Today, lithium-ion batteries power everything from cell phones to laptops to electric vehicles. One of the limiting factors for realizing a global shift to energy produced by renewable sources — particularly for the transition ...

The College of Engineering and Computer Science of Florida Atlantic University received a $2.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish a scholarship program in the burgeoning and critical field of cybersecurity. The NSF’s CyberCorps® Scholarship for Service program seeks to increase the number of qualified cybersecurity professionals working for federal, state, local, territorial and tribal governments. The program is managed by the NSF in collaboration with the United States Office of Personnel Management and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. FAU is one of only six universities ...

In a groundbreaking study published on January 18, 2024, in Cancer Discovery, scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine leveraged a machine learning algorithm to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing cancer researchers: predicting when cancer will resist chemotherapy. All cells, including cancer cells, rely on complex molecular machinery to replicate DNA as part of normal cell division. Most chemotherapies work by disrupting this DNA replication machinery in rapidly dividing tumor ...

[Boston, MA—January 18, 2023]  The American Meteorological Society’s (AMS) 104th Annual Meeting will gather thousands of people at the Baltimore Convention Center 28 January–1 February to attend the world’s largest annual meeting focused on weather, water, and climate. The AMS is the professional society for everyone in the atmospheric and hydrologic sciences and services, including meteorologists, research scientists, emergency managers, academics, weather broadcasters, and more. “The theme of our 104th Annual Meeting is ‘Living in a Changing Environment,’” says AMS President Brad Colman. “It’s ...

New research has been published that identifies positive steps towards a better understanding of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), specifically in hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP). Antimicrobial, or antibiotic resistance, is a growing global issue, yet little is known about how to dose antibiotics to minimise bacteria developing resistance in patients. However, the University of Liverpool is playing a key role in contributing to international efforts to better understand AMR. In a paper published today (Thursday 18 January), ...

Researchers from McGill University, led by Professor Alanna Watt of the Department of Biology, have identified previously unknown changes in brain cells affected by a neurological disease. Their research, published in eLife, could pave the way to future treatments for the disease. Spinocerebellar ataxia type 6, known as SCA6, is a rare neurological disease that disrupts the function in a part of the brain called the cerebellum, causing difficulties with movement and coordination. The condition results from genetic mutations, ...

Considerable attention has focused on burnout and mental health of physicians and nurses on the frontline during the COVID-19 pandemic. First responders – law enforcement personnel, firefighters and emergency medical service (EMS) providers, also experienced increased levels of stress, anxiety and depression due to job-related pressures associated with the pandemic. Given their exposure to work-related stress during this time, first responders may have been at considerable risk of developing problematic substance use. However, little is known about the factors associated with first responder drug and alcohol use during the pandemic.  A study by Florida ...

Organic semiconductors are a class of materials that find applications in various electronic devices owing to their unique properties. One attribute that influences the optoelectronic property of these organic semiconductors is their "exciton binding energy," which is the energy needed to divide an exciton into its negative and positive constituents. Since high binding energies can have a significant impact on the functioning of optoelectronic devices, low binding energies are desirable. This can help in reducing energy losses in devices like organic solar cells. While several methods for designing organic materials with low binding energies have ...

Quasicrystals are intermetallic materials that have garnered significant attention from researchers aiming to advance condensed matter physics understanding. Unlike normal crystals, in which atoms are arranged in an ordered repeating pattern, quasicrystals have non-repeating ordered patterns of atoms. Their unique structure leads to many exotic and interesting properties, which are particularly useful for practical applications in spintronics and magnetic refrigeration. A unique quasicrystal variant, known as the Tsai-type icosahedral quasicrystal (iQC) and their cubic approximant crystals (ACs), display intriguing characteristics. These include long-range ferromagnetic (FM) ...

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have used DNA origami, the art of folding DNA into desired structures, to show how an important cell receptor can be activated in a previously unknown way. The result opens new avenues for understanding how the Notch signalling pathway works and how it is involved in several serious diseases. The study is published in Nature Communications. Notch is a cell receptor that is of great importance to a wide range of organisms and plays a crucial role in many different processes, including early embryonic development in both flies and humans. Notch ...

The mystery behind why Alaskan horses, cryptodiran turtles and island lizards shrunk over time may have been solved in a new study.  The new theoretical research proposes that animal size over time depends on two key ecological factors: the intensity of direct competition for resources between species, and the risk of extinction from the environment.  Using computer models simulating evolution, the study, published today (Thursday, 18 January) in communications biology, identifies why some species gradually get smaller, as indicated by fossil records. Dr Shovonlal Roy, an ecosystem modeller from the University of Reading who led the research, ...

Researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reported promising results in a Phase I/II trial of 37 patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell malignancies who were treated with cord blood-derived chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) natural killer (NK) cell therapy targeting CD19.   Published today in Nature Medicine, the findings reveal an overall response (OR) rate of 48.6% at 100 days post treatment, with one-year progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) rates of 32% & 68%, respectively. The trial reported an excellent safety profile with no cases of severe cytokine release syndrome (CRS), neurotoxicity, ...

  ·  New finding to understand brain cell loss in neurodegenerative disease ·  Increasing protective short RNAs may be new approach to halt or delay Alzheimer’s ·  SuperAgers with superior memories have more protective short RNAs in their brains   CHICAGO --- Alzheimer’s disease, which is expected to have affected about 6.7 million patients in the U.S. in 2023, results in a substantial loss of brain cells. But the events that cause neuron death are poorly understood. A new Northwestern Medicine study shows that RNA interference may play a key role in Alzheimer’s. For the first time, ...

The way science is funded is hampering Earth System Models and may be skewing important climate predictions, according to a new comment published in Nature Climate Change by Woodwell Climate Research Center and an international team of model experts.   Emissions from thawing permafrost, frozen ground in the North that contains twice as much carbon as the atmosphere does and is thawing due to human-caused climate warming, are one of the largest uncertainties in future climate projections. But accurate representation of permafrost dynamics is missing from ...

A team of researchers from China, Australia, France, Spain, and Germany has revealed advanced material culture in East Asia by 45,000 years ago. The new study was published in Nature Ecology & Evolution on Jan. 18. The researchers examined a previously excavated archaeological collection from the Shiyu site, located in Shanxi Province. "Our new study identified an Initial Upper Palaeolithic archaeological assemblage from the Shiyu site of North China dating to 45,000 years ago that includes blade technology, tanged and hafted projectile points, long-distance obsidian transfer, and the use of a perforated ...

Throughout the brain’s cortex, neurons are arranged in six distinctive layers, which can be readily seen with a microscope. A team of MIT neuroscientists has now found that these layers also show distinct patterns of electrical activity, which are consistent over many brain regions and across several animal species, including humans. The researchers found that in the topmost layers, neuron activity is dominated by rapid oscillations known as gamma waves. In the deeper layers, slower oscillations called alpha and beta waves ...

200 US communities will fail to transition to 100% renewable energy by 2050 despite their pledges to do so, according to a new study published in IOP Publishing’s journal Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability.    The study shows that by 2050 gas will firmly remain the primary source of energy in the US given that the current infrastructure plans for implementing renewable energy cannot provide sufficient energy output. Recent projections suggest that renewable energy generation will need to triple to meet even a 45% share of energy production. The results indicate that in many instances renewable energy ...

The European Society of Endocrinology (ESE) is pleased to announce that the new Editor-in-Chief of our flagship journal, the European Journal of Endocrinology (EJE), is Professor Felix Beuschlein, M.D. He will assume his post in May 2024 when the current Editor in Chief, Professor Wiebke Arlt, steps down. Professor Philippe Chanson, Chair of ESE’s Publications and Communications Committee said, “I am delighted that Felix will be the next Editor in Chief of ESE’s flagship journal and will continue to build on the strong foundations laid by his predecessors. Felix’s internationally ...

Mice lacking a certain gene are unable to produce offspring because their sperm lack the connection between the tail and the head. A new thesis from the University of Gothenburg indicates a probable cause of male infertility. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have identified a new protein, dubbed by them as “MC2”, that plays a crucial part in the formation of swimmable sperm in mice. This protein is needed to create a functional connection between the head and the tail of the sperm. “The connection is located in the ‘neck’ of the sperm head and facilitates coordinated movement and function ...

(WASHINGTON, DC) 18 JANUARY 2024 — Bottom trawling is a previously unaccounted for source of atmospheric carbon emissions, scientists reveal in a study published today. As the world scrambles to slash emissions caused by fossil fuels, deforestation and other sources, the study finds bottom trawling — the act of dragging a heavy fishing net across the ocean floor and resuspending some of the carbon in the seafloor sediment — to be a significant source of atmospheric carbon pollution. A previous study found that part of that disturbed ...

Osaka, Japan – At the heart of global internet connectivity, optical communications form an indispensable foundation.  Key to this foundation are optical isolators, created by combining multiple components. The result is a complex structure that transmits light in only one direction, to prevent damage to lasers and minimize noise by avoiding the reversal of light. However, some magnetic materials have an optical diode effect – an unconventional nonreciprocal absorption of light manifested by the material itself. This effect leads to a change in transmittance depending ...