Patients with limited hand function are soon set to benefit from an intelligent neuro-orthosis that will enable them to lead independent lives again. Prof. Dr. Alessandro Del Vecchio, a neuroscientist at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), is working on this aim in two new projects and has received over 1.3 million euros of funding from the Free State of Bavaria. The main focus of this research during the next three years will involve wireless measurements of muscle impulses and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to make the intended movements. Around 50 million people worldwide suffer from neuromotor impairments to their hands caused ...

15N isotope-labeled amino acids (15N-amino acids) provide a safe and effective tracer tool for studying the synthesis of natural products, protein metabolism, and disease diagnosis and treatment in living organisms. In addition, it is an important synthetic block for the synthesis of 15N-labeled drugs. Currently, 15N-labeled amino acids are generally synthesized by microbial fermentation and chemical reduction amination of ketoacids, but these methods usually require complex steps, high temperature conditions or the use of toxic cyanide, causing energy and environmental ...

Subtropical mode water (STMW) is a vertically homogeneous thermocline water mass, serving as heat, carbon, and oxygen silos in the ocean interior and providing memory of climate variability for climate prediction. Understanding physics governing STMW formation is thus of broad scientific significance and has received much attention. Traditionally, it has been considered that STMW is constructed by basin-scale atmospheric forcing. Due to the limitations resulting from sparse sampling of observations and coarse ...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a serious neurological disease that usually causes permanent disability. Approximately 2.9 million people are affected worldwide, 240,000 in Germany alone. The exact cause of the disease is not yet clear, but a central feature is a loss of the insulating protective layer of axons – the neuronal connections in the central nervous system – which is triggered by autoimmune processes. The coating of the axons, known as myelin, is formed by highly specialised glial cells (i.e. oligodendrocytes) and enables the rapid transmission ...

Co-design, that is, designing software and hardware simultaneously, is one way of attempting to meet the computing-power needs of today’s artificial intelligence applications. Compilers, which translate instructions from one representation to another, are a key piece of the puzzle. A group of researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences summarized existing compiler technologies in deep learning co-design and proposed their own framework, the Buddy Compiler. The group’s review paper was published June 19 in Intelligent Computing, a Science Partner Journal. Although others have summarized optimizations, hardware architectures, co-design approaches, and compilation ...

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has resulted in more than 600 million confirmed cases and 6.5 million deaths worldwide. mRNA-based vaccines have emerged as a leading platform for COVID-19 protection and are extensively investigated in basic and clinical trials. SYS6006 (CSPC Pharmaceutical Group) is a newly investigational COVID-19 mRNA vaccine encoding a full-length S protein sequence of the prototype SARS-CoV-2 strain and incorporating the key mutations of main epidemic variants. In March 2023, it has been authorized for emergent use in China by the national medicinal ...

Protein aggregates accumulate during aging and are linked to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or Huntington’s disease. A new study by the Nyström lab at Gothenburg University, in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Germany, describes a novel, engineered approach that makes protein aggregates amenable to spatial manipulations in both budding yeast and human cells. Many neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or Huntington’s disease are associated with the aggregation of misfolded proteins ...

As businesses become increasingly global, changes are also taking place at an extraordinary pace. Compliance is critical for large economies, industry regulations, and enterprise operations. BGI Genomics prioritizes compliance management and strictly follow laws, regulations, and international practices while conducting business globally. BGI Genomics recently completed the rigorous evaluation of BSI, a major worldwide standard, testing, and certification authority. It was awarded the GB/T 35770-2022/ISO 37301:2021 Compliance Management System accreditation, making it the first enterprise in the industry to do so. ...

Constant monitoring of vital health signs is needed in a variety of clinical environments such as intensive care units, for patients with critical health conditions, health monitoring in aged care facilities and prisons, or in safety monitoring situations where drowsiness can cause accidents. This is now mostly achieved via wired or invasive contact systems. However, these are either inconvenient or, for patients with burns or for infants with insufficient skin area, are unsuitable. Scientists at the University of Sydney Nano Institute and the NSW Smart Sensing ...

Exploding populations of wild pigs and macaque monkeys in Southeast Asia are threatening native forests and disease outbreaks in livestock and people, according to research led by The University of Queensland. Dr Matthew Luskin, from UQ’s School of the Environment, and his team collated and analysed species population data from across the region, some of it collected with a network of cameras. “Macaques and wild pigs are taking over Southeast Asia’s disturbed forests,” Dr Luskin said. “Humans are largely to blame for this by altering forests with logging ...

Niigata, Japan - KOSÉ Corporation (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President: Kazutoshi Kobayashi) has developed in collaborative research with Professor Kenji Izumi and his colleagues at Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences (Faculty of Dentistry) a three-dimensional epithelial model that reproduces the human lip area from the oral mucosa to the lips and surrounding skin, using cell culture. The lips are one of the most important elements that determine the impressions of the face, and they are also an area where many people suffer from problems, ...

Niigata, Japan—Scientists have made significant progress in understanding the signals involved in regulating oral keratinocyte cell motility and proliferative capacity, offering new insights into potential pharmacological manipulation for regenerative medicine. A recent study, published in FEBS Open Bio, elucidated the role of the epidermal growth factor (EGF) and its downstream signaling cascade in controlling the behavior of oral keratinocytes.   Oral keratinocytes, which play a crucial role in the formation of the oral mucosa epithelial cell sheet, have long been enigmatic in terms of their signaling ...

Long COVID is not a single condition, and should not be treated as such, according to new data collected in nationwide study released May 31 in the Open Forum of Infectious Diseases. The study looked at persistent symptoms experienced by patients with COVID-19 both at three- and six-month intervals. In all, 5,963 patients participated in the study, with 4,504 of the participants testing positive for COVID-19 and 1,459 testing negative. Many of the participants, 2,000 in all, came from King County through the University of Washington School of Medicine. The four major symptom categories for people who tested positive for COVID-19 included: Minimal ...

Sophia Antipolis, 30 June 2023:  Loneliness is a bigger risk factor for heart disease in patients with diabetes than diet, exercise, smoking and depression, according to research published today in European Heart Journal, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).1 “The quality of social contact appears to be more important for heart health in people with diabetes than the number of engagements,” said study author Professor Lu Qi of Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, US. “We should not downplay the important of loneliness ...

ST. LOUIS - Research published in Outlook on Agriculture has shown that the population relative to available climate-suitable areas in Kenya has increased, posing a threat to the country’s economy and food security. The study, “Spatial changes to climate suitability and availability of agropastoral farming systems across Kenya (1980-2020),” was published online on May 29. The research team analyzed Kenya’s farming systems and climate zones between 1980-2020. Over that time, the population ...

The current status and future perspectives on the successful industrialization of biobased succinic acid are discussed in a comprehensive review article in the peer-reviewed journal Industrial Biotechnology. Click here to read the article now.  Succinic acid is one of the most important platform chemicals, with applications as a pharmaceutical ingredient, food additive, precursor of various chemicals, and raw material for biobased polymers. There is increasing demand for the sustainable production of succinic acid and its derivatives. Sang Yup Lee, from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and coauthors, review ...

In the first global assessment of TB among incarcerated people, a new study found consistently high TB case rates and low case detection in prisons, suggesting the need for health organizations to increase efforts to reduce the spread of TB among this high-risk population. In 2019, incarcerated people across the globe developed tuberculosis (TB) at nearly 10 times the rate of people in the general population, according to a new study led by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH). Published in The Lancet Public Health, the study found that 125,105 of the 11 million people incarcerated worldwide developed tuberculosis in 2019, ...

Research from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago promises to spare many premature infants from undergoing invasive eye exams to detect retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), the most common cause of preventable lifelong blindness in children in the U.S. ROP is caused by an abnormal development of small blood vessels on the retina. Isabelle De Plaen, MD, and colleagues found that imaging the capillaries in the nailbed of preemies within the first month of life using a non-invasive technique, called nailbed capillaroscopy, can identify infants at high risk for developing ROP. This screening could eliminate the need to evaluate all premature infants with eye exams ...

Air pollution is the largest environmental cause of death. Now, a study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation, has estimated which sources contribute most to the mortality associated with two air pollutants - PM2.5 and NO2 - in 857 European cities. The results of this research, which have been published in The Lancet Public Health, show great variability between the different cities studied, suggesting that, given that each one has its own particularities and its own sources of air pollution, strategies to improve air quality should be adapted to each local context. Contributors ...

A newly developed risk calculator that is based on 11 key social, demographic, and clinical factors, can correctly predict suicide risk in those who have self-harmed within the following 6 to 12 months, suggests research published in the open access journal BMJ Mental Health. Pending further validation, OxSATS, short for Oxford Suicide Assessment Tool for Self-harm, may help inform treatment decisions and the most effective targeting of resources, suggest the researchers. Self-harm is associated with a heightened risk of suicide within the following 12 months that ...

B-roll video and interview with researcher BALTIMORE, June 29, 2023– A new study published today in The Lancet has revealed the most extensive analysis to date on what led to the eventual heart failure in the world's first successful transplant of a genetically-modified pig heart into a human patient. This groundbreaking procedure was conducted by University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) physician-scientists back in January 2022 and marked an important milestone for medical science. The patient, 57-year-old David Bennett, Sr., was treated at the University of Maryland ...

High levels of lean muscle might protect against Alzheimer’s disease, suggests a large study published in the open access journal BMJ Medicine. But further research is needed to tease out the underlying biological pathways, along with the clinical and public health implications, say the study authors. Obesity has been associated with a heightened risk of Alzheimer’s disease in numerous studies, possibly explained by the attendant increased inflammation, insulin resistance, and higher levels in fat tissue of the protein harmful to brain health, amyloid β. Lower levels of lean muscle have also been associated with a heightened risk of the disease, but it’s ...

Disabled workers are 1.5 times more likely than non-disabled to be in severely insecure work Disabled women are more than twice as likely to be in severely insecure work than disabled men Autistic workers (38%) and those with mental health conditions (28%) are most likely to be severely insecure work New research by the Work Foundation at Lancaster University reveals 1.3 million* disabled workers are trapped in severely insecure work in the UK – and 430,000 say they want to work more hours. Disabled workers are 1.5 times ...

While more and more people are shopping online, purchasing clothes on the internet poses a unique challenge: What if it doesn’t fit? The apparel industry’s latest solution is virtual try-on sessions that allow consumers to share photos or measurements of themselves to create a similar-sized avatar. While some consumers have significant concerns about the new technology, especially young people, new research from the University of Missouri found that qualities such as the perceived ease of using the technology significantly ...

Participant selection bias in women’s health studies may mask earlier onset menopause for Black and Hispanic women, according to new research led by University of Michigan. Researchers say that failure to account for weathering led to exclusion of many Black and Hispanic women from the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN) cohort and misses critical racial differences in menopausal age.  Established in 1994, SWAN examines midlife health and menopausal transition to improve ...