A new study finds that fly ash--particles left over from burning coal--make up between 37 and 72 percent of all particulate organic carbon carried by the Yangtze River in China, or around 200,000 to 400,000 tons of carbon per year. The study, which is the first of its kind, shows just how big an impact fossil fuel consumption has on Earth. Beyond pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, coal burning dumps about as much particulate carbon into the Yangtze River as natural processes do. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on May 17. "About one-fifth of the world's coal consumption occurs along this river," says Gen Li, postdoctoral ...

A new report by Skoltech scientists and their colleagues describes an organic material for the new generation of energy storage devices, which structure follows an elegant molecular design principle. It has recently been published in ACS Applied Energy Materials and made the cover of the journal. While the modern world relies on energy storage devices more and more heavily, it is becoming increasingly important to implement sustainable battery technologies that are friendlier to the environment, are easy to dispose, rely on abundant elements only, and are cheap. Organic batteries are desirable ...

East Hanover, NJ. May 25, 2021. A team of experts in post-stroke neurorehabilitation confirmed that including prism adaptation treatment in standard of care for patients with post-stroke spatial neglect improved functional and cognitive outcomes according to the Functional Independence Measure®. The article, "Prism Adaptation Treatment Improves Inpatient Rehabilitation Outcome in Individuals with Spatial Neglect: A Retrospective Matched Control Study" (doi: 10.1016/j.arrct.2021.100130. was published in Archives of Rehabilitation Research and Clinical Translation on May XX, 2021. It is available open access at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590109521000343 The ...

LED lightbulbs offer considerable advantages over other types of lighting. Being more efficient, they require much less electricity to operate. They do not give off unwanted heat the way old-school incandescent bulbs do, and the best of them long outlast even fluorescent lightbulbs. But LEDs are not problem-free. Questions linger over suspected links between health concerns such as fatigue, mood disorders, and insomnia from overexposure to the blue-tinted light produced by today's standard LED bulbs. Plus, higher prices can prompt lightbulb shoppers to weigh other options. A University of Houston research team led by Jakoah Brgoch, associate professor of chemistry in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and principal investigator in the Texas Center for ...

ITHACA, N.Y. - It stands to reason that the more one is compensated for performing a task, the greater the incentive to do a good job and the better one feels about doing it. But what if the task is writing an objective review of a company or service? Does the compensation blur the lines of objectivity? Kaitlin Woolley, assistant professor of marketing in the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, wondered the same thing. "You often receive emails after a purchase, offering you a chance to win a gift card to the company in ...

One in five women experience pain during intercourse. The latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the bible of American psychiatrists, lists it under "genito-pelvic pain or penetration disorder." However, this type of pain is not purely psychological. Provoked vestibulodynia is a condition experienced by approximately 8% of women in North America. It is characterized by severe pain at the vaginal opening during sexual intercourse or when inserting tampons. To reduce the burning sensation, many women apply lidocaine, an anesthetic ...

Boston, MA-- How does the switch to a high-deductible health plan affect children with asthma? A new study led by researchers at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute suggests that enrollment in a high-deductible health plan (HDHP) may not be associated with changes in asthma medication use or asthma exacerbations when medications are exempt from the deductible. The findings were published in JAMA Pediatrics on May 10. To treat asthma, clinical guidelines recommend the use of controller medications, but adherence to these medications is generally suboptimal, putting those affected at risk for asthma exacerbations. High out-of-pocket costs have been associated with decreased controller medication use and adverse asthma outcomes for children and adults. ...

The energy available from sunlight is 10,000 times more than what is needed to supply the world's energy demands. Sunlight has two main properties that are useful in the design of renewable energy systems. The first is the amount power falling on a fixed area, like the ground or a person's roof. This quantity varies with the time of day and the season. The second property is the colors or spectrum of the sunlight. One way to capture solar energy is to use solar cells that directly turn sunlight into electricity. In a solar module like those that people place on their roof, many cells are assembled on a rigid panel, connected to one another, sealed, and covered ...

New research from the Clemson University Center for Human Genetics has identified specific cell clusters in the brain of the common fruit fly affected by acute cocaine exposure, potentially laying the groundwork for the development of drugs to treat or prevent addiction in humans. While cocaine's neurological effects are well known, the underlying genetic sensitivity to the drug's effects is not. In human populations, susceptibility to the effects of cocaine varies due to both environmental and genetic factors, making it challenging to study. Approximately 70 percent of genes in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, have human counterparts, providing researchers with a comparable model when studying ...

BOSTON -- A multidisciplinary team from MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC), Brigham and Women's Hospital and other institutions have identified the mechanism of how an extremely rare but serious post-COVID-19 complication develops in children and adolescents. Led by MGHfC pediatric pulmonologist Lael Yonker, MD, researchers determined that viral particles remaining in the gut long after an initial COVID-19 infection can travel into the bloodstream, instigating the condition called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). The syndrome can occur several weeks after an initial infection; symptoms include high fever, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, rash and extreme fatigue. The hyperinflammatory ...

A novel compound similar in structure to the psychedelic drug ibogaine, but lacking its toxic and hallucinogenic effects, has been found to rapidly reverse the effects of stress in mice. Researchers found that a single dose of tabernanthalog (TBG) can correct stress-induced behavioral deficits, including anxiety and cognitive inflexibility, and also promotes the regrowth of neuronal connections and restores neural circuits in the brain that are disrupted by stress. The study was published May 25 in Molecular Psychiatry. "It was very surprising that a single treatment with a low dose had such dramatic effects within a day," said corresponding author ...

Invasive alien plants are plant species that grow in an environment outside their native habitat. If they successfully establish self-sustaining populations in these new environments - an event called "naturalization" - they can have considerable negative impacts on local ecosystems, economies, and societies. But not all alien plant species are equally effective in invading new habitats. Therefore, an international team of scientists, headed by Konstanz-based biologist Professor Mark van Kleunen, investigated different types of "invasiveness" and possible factors that determine invasion success of alien plants in Europe. The new study, published in PNAS, describes ...

Osaka, Japan - Chronic inflammation of the pancreas is a debilitating disease with poorly understood causative factors. Now, researchers at Osaka University have identified the disturbed molecular pathways and revealed the underlying mechanisms that may inform an effective and much-needed therapeutic strategy. The pancreas is an important organ with a dual role in digestion and the production of various hormones including insulin and glucagon that fine-tune blood sugar levels. Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is characterized by inflammation of the gland ...

In the latest National Autism Indicators Report, researchers from Drexel University's A.J. Drexel Autism Institute examined surveys of family members of autistic adults who use Developmental Disability services, and found needs for additional supports like respite care and assistance to plan for crisis and emergencies, especially among families whose adult lived with them. Data from the surveys showed over one quarter of families with autistic adults who use Developmental Disability services and live with family do not have enough services or supports for themselves, according to the report. And over half of these ...

LA JOLLA--In a new paper, scientists from La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) bring together research findings from COVID-19 researchers around the world. The results are striking: human T cells can target more than 1,400 sites on the SARS-CoV-2 virus. "Our lab and many others have shown this very broad and diverse T cell response," says LJI Research Assistant Professor Daniela Weiskopf, Ph.D., co-author of the Cell Host & Microbe review. This kind of research review, called a "meta-analysis," pools the results of multiple studies, and the researchers give close consideration to how the studies were conducted. In the case of COVID-19, a global meta-analysis of T cell response studies is especially helpful because different patient populations ...

An in vitro study conducted by a group of researchers at São Paulo State University (UNESP) in Araraquara, Brazil, shows how fungi and bacteria can activate genes associated with head and neck tumors, as the metabolism of biofilms (communities in which these microorganisms self-organize in a structured and coordinated manner) stimulate tumor cells by favoring the cell signaling pathways required for tumor development and resistance to treatment. The findings include entirely novel information on the links between microbial biofilms and cell behavior in head and neck cancer. The researchers discovered that metabolites secreted by biofilms, termed the secretome, can modulate the expression of proto-oncogenes and cell cycle genes associated with tumor cell growth and survival. Their analysis ...

Geothermal ecosystems, such as volcanoes and hot terrestrial and deep-sea springs, are characterized by severe conditions. The temperatures are high and the environment could be extremely acidic or very alkaline. Moreover, there are chemically active compounds in them that can be fatal to living organisms, because they are capable of destroying the membrane of an ordinary cell. "Exclusively very adapted microorganisms can exist here. They do not only have unique protective systems but are also able to get energy from chemical transformations of those substances that are available to them. Humans are actively using the ...

BOSTON - In a surprising discovery, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) identified a mechanism that protects the brain from the effects of hypoxia, a potentially lethal deprivation of oxygen. This serendipitous finding, which they report in Nature Communications, could aid in the development of therapies for strokes, as well as brain injury that can result from cardiac arrest, among other conditions. However, this study began with a very different objective, explains senior author Fumito Ichinose, MD, PhD, an attending physician in the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at MGH, and principal investigator in ...

Bottom Line: In a new recommendation statement, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends that clinicians offer pregnant adolescents and adults effective behavioral counseling interventions aimed at promoting healthy weight gain and preventing excess gestational weight gain in pregnancy. Excess weight at the beginning of pregnancy and excess gestational weight gain have been associated with adverse maternal and infant health outcomes such as a large for gestational age infant, cesarean delivery or preterm birth. The USPSTF routinely makes recommendations about the effectiveness of preventive care ...

WASHINGTON, May 25, 2021 -- For millennia, silver has been utilized for its antimicrobial and antibacterial properties. Although its use as a disinfectant is widely known, the effects of silver's interaction with bacteria on the silver itself are not well understood. As antibiotic-resistant bacteria become more and more prevalent, silver has seen steep growth in its use in things like antibacterial coatings. Still, the complex chain of events that lead to the eradication of bacteria is largely taken for granted, and a better understanding of this process can provide clues on how to best apply it. In Chemical Physics Reviews, by AIP Publishing, researchers from Italy, the United States, and Singapore studied the impacts an interaction with bacteria has on silver's ...

What The Study Did: This study evaluates the association between bitter taste receptor types (supertasters who experience greater intensity of bitter tastes; tasters; and nontasters who experience low intensity of bitter tastes or no bitter tastes) and outcomes after infection with SARS-CoV-2. Authors: Henry P. Barham, MD, Sinus and Nasal Specialists of Louisiana in Baton Rouge, 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.2021.11410) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest disclosures. Please see the article for additional ...

What The Study Did: Researchers examined if circulating sex hormones are associated with disease severity in patients with COVID-19. Authors: Sandeep Dhindsa, M.D., of the St Louis University School of Medicine and Abhinav Diwan, M.D., of the Washington University School of Medicine, both in St. Louis, are the corresponding authors. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.11398) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, ...

What The Study Did: Rates of depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts and posttraumatic stress disorder among current and former coal miners in the United States were examined in this study. Authors: Drew Harris, M.D., of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, 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.2021.11110) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and ...

Throughout the pandemic, doctors have seen evidence that men with COVID-19 fare worse, on average, than women with the infection. One theory is that hormonal differences between men and women may make men more susceptible to severe disease. And since men have much more testosterone than women, some scientists have speculated that high levels of testosterone may be to blame. But a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that, among men, the opposite may be true: that low testosterone levels in the blood are linked to more severe disease. The study could not prove ...

The research team of Gero, a Singapore-based biotech company in collaboration with Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo NY, announces a publication in Nature Communications, a journal of Nature portfolio, presenting the results of the study on associations between aging and the loss of the ability to recover from stresses. Recently, we have witnessed the first promising examples of biological age reversal by experimental interventions. Indeed, many biological clock types properly predict more years of life for those who choose healthy lifestyles or quit unhealthy ones, such as smoking. What has been still unknown is how quickly biological age is changing over time for the same individual. And especially, how one would distinguish between the ...