A team led by Prof. GUO Guoping and Prof. CAO Gang from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), collaborating with Sigmund Kohler from Materials Science Institute of Madrid, developed a response theory applicable to strongly coupled and multiqubit systems. Their study was published in Physical Review Letters.  Semiconductor quantum dot (QD) strongly coupled to microwave photons is the key to investigate light-matter interactions. In previous studies, the team used high-impedance super-conducting resonant cavity to implement the strong coupling of the QD-cavity hybrid system. Based on this strong ...

The Safety Sensescaping project, funded by WorkSafe's WorkWell Mental Health Improvement Fund, is part of Peninsula Health’s Thriving in Health program, which aims to create safe and mentally healthy environments for healthcare workers to thrive in.   Project lead and RMIT Senior Lecturer Dr Olivier Cotsaftis worked with doctors, nurses and non-clinicians at Peninsula Health for three years to understand the psychosocial hazards in their workplace and find design-led solutions to prevent mental injury.   Cotsaftis said hospital scrubs were an unconscious source of stress for many healthcare workers.  Designed according to the standard male ...

An international team of astronomers used the state-of-the-art capability of VERA, a Japanese network of radio telescopes operated by NAOJ, to uncover valuable clues about how rapidly growing “young” supermassive black holes form, grow, and possibly evolve into more powerful quasars. It is now widely accepted that nearly every active galaxy harbors a supermassive black hole at its core, with masses ranging from millions to billions of times that of the Sun. The growth history by which these black holes have gained such huge masses, however, remains an open question. Led by Mieko Takamura, ...

Membraneless organelles (MLOs), also known as “biomolecular condensates,” are formed by the biological process of liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS). MLOs are highly dynamic bodies containing proteins and nucleic acids. While the role of proteins in LLPS has been extensively investigated, there is a growing interest in the scientific community to understand the role of RNAs—the nucleic acid responsible for innumerable biological functions including coding, decoding, regulation, and expression of genes, and ultimately proteins—in phase separation. Recent studies have revealed that MLOs are rich in RNAs ...

Piezoelectricity in native bones has been well recognized as the key factor in bone regeneration. However, the current additive-manufactured scaffolds mainly focus on the reconstruction of bionic topological structure and mechanical microenvironment, while the crucial electrical microenvironment (EM) in bone regeneration is neglected. Piezoelectricity in native bones has been well recognized as the key factor in bone regeneration. However, the current additive-manufactured scaffolds mainly focus on the ...

Investigators from Cedars-Sinai have provided new understanding of how diabetes delays wound healing in the eye, identifying for the first time two related disease-associated changes to the cornea. The findings, published today in the peer-reviewed journal Diabetologia, also identified three therapeutic pathways that reversed these changes and partially restored wound-healing function to the cornea—a discovery that could ultimately inform new treatments for diabetes. “We have found that diabetes induces more cellular changes than we were aware of previously,” ...

Biomolecular condensates, the tiny combinations of proteins and mRNA forming membrane-less compartments within cells, have big potential implications for the future of not just plants but humans. On Sunday, August 6, at 9:00 am, the #PlantBio2023 plenary “Highlights of New and Emerging Research on Biomolecular Condensates in Plants” will dive into this new field and its recent discoveries.  “It’s going to be a great way to get your feet wet and understand what biomolecular condensates are,” ...

Not being heard, not being taken seriously and being misunderstood by health care providers often describes a routine medical visit for many Black parents. For Black parents of young children, that lack of cultural understanding can lead to grim consequences for the health of the baby and mother.   According to the California Department of Public Health, Black babies in the Bay Area are two to three times more likely to be born too soon or too small or to die before their first birthday, compared to white babies. Scientific evidence points to structural racism and a systemic lack ...

Scientists have combined two light wavelengths to deactivate a bacterium that is invulnerable to some of the world’s most widely used antibiotics, giving hope that the regime could be adapted as a potential disinfectant treatment. Under the guidance of project leader Dr Gale Brightwell, scientists at New Zealand’s AgResearch demonstrated the novel antimicrobial efficiency of a combination of two light wavelengths against a ‘superbug’ known as antibiotic-resistant extended-spectrum beta-lactamase E. coli. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major global threat of ...

At first, some parents were wary: An audio chatbot was supposed to teach their kids to speak positively to themselves through lessons about a superhero named Zip. In a world of Siri and Alexa, many people are skeptical that the makers of such technologies are putting children’s welfare first. Researchers at the University of Washington created a new web app aimed to help children develop skills like self-awareness and emotional management. In Self-Talk with Superhero Zip, a chatbot guided pairs of siblings ...

The University of Texas at Arlington is part of a new consortium funded by the Department of Energy that involves the development of new technologies and college courses covering everything from radiation detection to nuclear engineering. The grant also will help UTA develop 2D materials that can be integrated into new hand-held photonic technologies with multiple uses. Electrical Engineering Professor Weidong Zhou and Associate Professor Alice Sun will use the five-year, $1.8 million grant to work with collaborators at UT Arlington, University of North Texas, University of Arkansas Pine Bluff, ...

Researchers at Texas A&M University are taking a traditional manufacturing tool — metal cutting — and developing a more accessible method for understanding the behavior of metals under extreme conditions. Metal cutting – scraping a thin layer of material from a metal’s surface using a sharp knife (not unlike how we scrape butter) – might not be the first thing that comes to mind for studying material properties. However, Drs. Dinakar Sagapuram and Hrayer Aprahamian, assistant professors ...

People with bipolar disorder—characterised by extreme mood swings—are 6 times more likely to die before their time from external causes, such as accidents, violence, and suicide, than those without the condition, finds research published in the open access journal BMJ Mental Health. And they are twice as likely to die from somatic (physical) causes, with alcohol a major contributing factor, the findings show. A heightened risk of an early death from any cause has been consistently reported in those with ...

The proportion of smokers’ duty free tobacco purchases in England has tripled since 2019, rising from just over 5% to just over 16%, but there’s been no reported change in black market purchases, reveals a time-trends analysis published online in the journal Tobacco Control. Between 2002 and 2014, between 12% and 20% of UK adult smokers said their last tobacco purchase had been from a low or untaxed source. And smokers who buy their tobacco from low/untaxed sources—and those who switch to cheaper products—are less likely to try to quit smoking than those ...

It’s time to stop prevaricating and explore the use of psilocybin—the active ingredient in ‘magic mushrooms’—and other psychedelics to ease the often overwhelming distress faced by women with late stage gynaecological cancers, urge doctors in a commentary published online in the International Journal of Gynecological Cancer. Conventional ‘gold standard’ psychotherapeutic approaches, such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), take too long to change old habits and require too much stamina, suggest the authors from the University of Texas ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — If, as the saying goes, ‘nothing in life is free,’ then corals might pay a price for being resilient to climate change. Indeed, the prevailing belief among scientists has been that corals must suffer reduced growth or other tradeoffs when they partner with symbiotic algae that help them tolerate warmer water. Yet, new research led by Penn State demonstrates that certain corals can have their cake and eat it too, and as a result, these coral-symbiont partnerships may come to dominate ...

An Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai study sheds new light on some of the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of opioid addiction, which accounted for three-quarters of the more than 100,000 fatal drug overdoses in the United States in 2021. The Mount Sinai researchers found that inpatients with heroin use disorder exhibited a bias in favor of processing drug cues over cues related to natural, non-drug rewards, as observed during passive viewing of the cues and when the patients were asked to try two emotional regulation strategies. Results of the study were published in the July 12 issue of the American Journal ...

How do you study a predator with both camouflage and stealth that make it virtually invisible in the forest? Even jaguars poop. A team of researchers led by the University of Cincinnati applied genetic and isotopic analyses to jaguar scat to investigate the habitat needs of the big cats in the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Preserve of Belize in Central America. The study demonstrates a novel and noninvasive technique for identifying the landscape use and conservation needs of elusive wildlife. Researchers used scat-detecting dogs named Billy and Bruiser to find telltale evidence left behind by jaguars ...

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 100,000 Americans die each year from an overdose, most due to the use of synthetic opiates like fentanyl. While naloxone, currently the only an antidote for opiate overdose, has become more common, it is less effective against fentanyl-class synthetic opioids. Researchers at Indiana University have identified a new method of reversing the effects of fentanyl, which is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine. Their study, published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, could lead to a new way to reverse overdoses either through a new product or working synchronously with naloxone. "The synthetic opiates bind very ...

The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) — the nation’s largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to the field of aging — has chosen Kathleen Wilber PhD, FGSA, of the University of Southern California (USC) as the 2023 recipient of the Donald P. Kent Award. This distinguished honor is given annually to a GSA member who best exemplifies the highest standards for professional leadership in gerontology through teaching, service, and interpretation of gerontology to the larger society. It was established in 1973 in memory ...

The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) — the nation’s largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to the field of aging — has chosen David Almeida, PhD, FGSA, of The Pennsylvania State University as the 2023 recipient of the Robert W. Kleemeier Award. This distinguished honor is given annually to a GSA member in recognition for outstanding research in the field of gerontology.  It was established in 1965 in memory of Robert W. Kleemeier, PhD, a former president of the Society whose contributions to the ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University (MSU) and the French research organization, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, or CNRS, today signed an agreement to establish the International Research Laboratory on Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics (IRL NPA) during a ceremony at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at MSU.  CNRS has nearly 80 international research laboratories worldwide, and IRL NPA at FRIB is the first dedicated to nuclear physics and astrophysics.  Leveraging FRIB’s world-unique research capabilities, the IRL NPA will be located at FRIB and dedicated to answering fundamental nuclear physics and astrophysics research questions.   With ...

The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) — the nation’s largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to the field of aging — has chosen Jacqueline L. Angel, PhD, FGSA, of the University of Texas at Austin as the 2023 recipient of the James Jackson Outstanding Mentorship Award. This distinguished honor is given annually and recognizes individuals who have exemplified outstanding commitment and dedication to mentoring minority researchers in the field of aging. It was renamed in 2021 in memory of James Jackson, PhD, FGSA, a pioneering psychologist in the fields of race and culture and the impact of racial disparities on minority health, and himself ...

The lithium-ion batteries used to power electric vehicles are key to a clean energy economy. But their electrodes are usually made using a wet slurry with toxic solvents, an expensive manufacturing approach that poses health and environmental risks. Early experiments at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have revealed significant benefits to a dry battery manufacturing process. This eliminates the solvent while showing promise for delivering a battery that is durable, less weighed down by inactive ...

A new study of UCLA Health’s large genetic biobank is giving researchers new insights into the disease risks faced by the region’s diverse communities and their access to health care. The effort, published in Nature Medicine, may prove useful in developing personalized medicine and treatment approaches to groups often overlooked by the medical system. UCLA Health researchers identified 376 population clusters based on shared genetic ancestry by leveraging information from nearly 36,000 patients enrolled in the UCLA ATLAS Precision Health Biobank. The ATLAS ...