Hip fractures are serious, especially for the elderly. The operation can be a great strain, and 13 per cent of patients over the age of 70 do not survive 60 days after the fracture. Their chance of survival may depend on how busy the surgeons are with other emergency procedures. "When the operating room is busy, 20 per cent more of the patients die within 60 days after the operation," says Professor Johan Håkon Bjørngaard at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's (NTNU) Department of Public Health and Nursing. Surgeons can get especially busy during periods when the patient demand for surgery is high. In busy periods, hip fracture patients ...

Bone is not just a fixed material - it's a dynamic set of structures that can adapt their mass and strength based on the loads they must support. Developing that sort of adaptive material has long been the dream of scientists. Now for the first time, scientists at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) at the University of Chicago have developed a gel material that strengthens when exposed to vibration. Not only were scientists able to make the material 66 times stronger through vibrations, they were also able to strengthen only the areas exposed to movement. That sort of specificity could lead to new adhesives and ...

Scientists have developed a see-through glass display with a high white light contrast ratio that smoothly transitions between a broad spectrum of colors when electrically charged. The technology, from researchers at Jilin University in Changchun, China, overcomes limitations of existing electrochromic devices by harnessing interactions between metal ions and ligands, opening the door for numerous future applications. The work appears March 10 in the journal Chem. "We believe that the method behind this see-through, non-emissive display may accelerate the development of transparent, eye-friendly displays with improved readability for bright working conditions," says Yu-Mo Zhang, an associate professor of chemistry at Jilin ...

The cryptocurrency market has been abuzz as Bitcoin gains popularity with investors, reaching an all-time high of over $58,000 apiece in February. In a commentary published March 10 in the journal Joule, financial economist Alex de Vries quantifies how the surging Bitcoin price is driving increasing energy consumption, exacerbating the global shortage of chips, and even threatening international safety. Theoretically, any computer with access to the internet and electricity can "mine" Bitcoin, a process to receive cryptocurrency by solving sophisticated mathematical equations. It is estimated that all miners combined make over 150 quintillion--that is 18 zeros following 150--attempts every second to solve the equation, according to numbers from January 11, 2021. Computational power ...

Scientists and healthcare providers are beginning to use a new approach for assessing a person's inherited risk for diseases like Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and breast cancer, which involves calculating a END ...

When we think about the causes of neurological disorders and how to treat them, we think about targeting the brain. But is this the best or only way? Maybe not. New research by scientists at Baylor College of Medicine suggests that microbes in the gut may contribute to certain symptoms associated with complex neurological disorders. The findings, published in the journal Cell, also suggest that microbe-inspired therapies may one day help to treat them. Dr. Mauro Costa-Mattioli, professor and Cullen Foundation Endowed Chair in neuroscience and director of the Memory and Brain Research Center at Baylor, discovered ...

Ottawa, March 10, 2021 - A new study of fossilized lampreys dating from more than 300 million years ago is challenging a long-held theory about the evolutionary origin of vertebrates (all animals with a backbone). The findings are published March 10 in the science journal Nature. Lampreys are ancient, jawless, eel-like fishes that arose around half a billion years ago and they have long provided insights into vertebrate evolution. Now, scientists with the Canadian Museum of Nature, the University of Chicago and the Albany Museum in South Africa are reporting their analysis of dozens of tiny fossils that track the life stages and growth of ancient lampreys, from hatchlings to juveniles to adults. Their results counter the established view that the blind, filter-feeding ...

A new study out of the University of Chicago, the Canadian Museum of Nature and the Albany Museum challenges a long-held hypothesis that the blind, filter-feeding larvae of modern lampreys are a holdover from the distant past, resembling the ancestors of all living vertebrates, including ourselves. The new fossil discoveries indicate that ancient lamprey hatchlings more closely resembled modern adult lampreys, and were completely unlike their modern larvae counterparts. The results were published on March 10 in Nature. Lampreys -- unusual jawless, eel-like, creatures -- have long provided insights ...

Despite years of hype, virtual reality headsets have yet to topple TV or computer screens as the go-to devices for video viewing. One reason: VR can make users feel sick. Nausea and eye strain can result because VR creates an illusion of 3D viewing although the user is in fact staring at a fixed-distance 2D display. The solution for better 3D visualization could lie in a 60-year-old technology remade for the digital world: holograms. Holograms deliver an exceptional representation of 3D world around us. Plus, they're beautiful. (Go ahead -- check out the holographic dove on your Visa card.) Holograms offer a shifting perspective based on the viewer's position, and they allow the eye to adjust focal depth to alternately focus on foreground and background. Researchers have long sought ...

On December 6, 2016, a high-energy particle called an electron antineutrino hurtled to Earth from outer space at close to the speed of light carrying 6.3 petaelectronvolts (PeV) of energy. Deep inside the ice sheet at the South Pole, it smashed into an electron and produced a particle that quickly decayed into a shower of secondary particles. The interaction was captured by a massive telescope buried in the Antarctic glacier, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. IceCube had seen a Glashow resonance event, a phenomenon predicted by Nobel laureate physicist ...

Researchers have struck quantum gold--and created a new word--by enlisting machine learning to efficiently navigate a 20-dimensional quantum treasure map. Physicist Dr Markus Rambach from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems (EQUS) at The University of Queensland said the team was able to find unknown quantum states more quickly and accurately, using a technique called self-guided tomography. The team also introduced the 'quvigint', which is like a qubit (the quantum version of a classical bit that takes on the values '0' or '1') except that it takes on not two, but 20 possible values. Dr ...

What The Study Did: In this study, most risk factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection among health care workers were outside the workplace. Authors: Jesse T. Jacob, M.D., of Emory University in Atlanta, 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.2021.1283) 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, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support. INFORMATION: Media ...

MADISON - On December 6, 2016, a high-energy particle hurtled to Earth from outer space at close to the speed of light. The particle, an electron antineutrino, smashed into an electron deep inside the ice sheet at the South Pole. This collision produced a particle that quickly decayed into a shower of secondary particles, triggering the sensors of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a massive telescope buried in the Antarctic glacier. IceCube had seen a Glashow resonance event, a phenomenon predicted by Nobel laureate physicist Sheldon Glashow in 1960. With this detection, scientists provided another confirmation of the Standard Model of particle physics. It ...

What The Study Did: This study of orthodox Jewisha dults across the United States found that socioculturally bound communities experienced early parallel outbreaks in discrete locations, notably prior to substantive medical and governmental directives. Authors: Jonathan I. Silverberg, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., of  George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and Avi Z. Rosenberg, M.D., Ph.D., of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, 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.2021.2816) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. ...

What The Study Did: In a study of Italian close contacts of patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, most infected contacts (1,948 of 2,824 individuals or 69%) didn't develop respiratory symptoms or fever 37.5 degrees Celsius (99.5 degrees Fahrenheit) or higher; 26.1% of infected individuals younger than 60 developed respiratory symptoms or fever 37.5 degrees Celsius (99.5 degrees Fahrenheit); and 6.6% of infected participants age 60 or older developed critical disease. Authors: Piero Poletti, Ph.D., of Fondazione Bruno Kessler in Trento, ...

What The Study Did: Boston experienced a COVID-19 surge that disproportionately affected persons experiencing homelessness and a large safety-net hospital implemented a novel COVID-19 recuperation unit for these patients that provided isolation, quarantine and treatment for substance use. Researchers aimed to determine the association of the care provided by the unit with COVID-19 hospitalizations among people experiencing homelessness. Authors: Joshua A. Barocas, M.D., of Boston Medical Center, is the corresponding author. To ...

What The Study Did: Findings of this study suggest that patients recovering from COVID-19-associated acute kidney injury require monitoring of kidney function following hospital discharge. Authors: F. Perry Wilson, M.D. M.S.C.E., of the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, 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.2021.1095) Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author ...

In the first study of the genomic architecture of the human placenta, scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the University of Cambridge and their collaborators have confirmed that the normal structure of the placenta is different to any other human organ and resembles that of a tumour, harbouring many of the same genetic mutations found in childhood cancers. The study, published today (10 March 2021) in Nature, found evidence to support the theory of the placenta as a 'dumping ground' for genetic defects, whereas the fetus corrects or avoids these errors. The findings provide a clear rationale for studying the association between genetic aberrations and birth outcomes, in order to better understand problems such as premature birth and stillbirth. In the earliest ...

What The Study Did: Researchers analyzed individual-level inpatient data from multiple U.S. hospital to further describe patients with diabetic ketoacidosis (a life-threatening complication of diabetes) with and without COVID-19. Authors:  Francisco J. Pasquel, M.D., M.P.H., of the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, 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.2021.1091) Editor's Note: The article ...

What The Study Did: Researchers in this survey study assessed the level of stigma toward people with varying degrees of hair loss. Authors: Arash Mostaghimi, M.D., M.P.A., M.P.H., of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, 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/jamadermatol.2020.5732) Editor's Note: The article includes conflicts of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding ...

A massive effort to map the precise binding locations of over 400 different kinds of proteins on the yeast genome has produced the most thorough and high-resolution map of chromosome architecture and gene regulation to date. The study reveals two distinct gene regulatory architectures, expanding the traditional model of gene regulation. So-called constitutive genes, those that perform basic 'housekeeping' functions and are nearly always active at low levels require only a basic set of regulatory controls; whereas those that that are activated by environmental signals, known as inducible genes, have a more specialized architecture. This finding in yeast could open the ...

The unprecedented discovery of an ancient lamprey growth series, published in the prestigious scientific journal, Nature, is overturning long-held ideas as to what modern lampreys may tell us about the origin of vertebrates (all animals with a backbone such as goldfish, lizards, crows and people). "Lampreys and modern hagfish are the only jawless fish alive that branched off from the family tree of vertebrates before they got jaws," says Dr Rob Gess from the Albany Museum in Makhanda, who discovered the ancient fossils. "This makes them very interesting for researchers attempting to understand the earliest stages of vertebrate history." Until now, it was commonly believed that modern lampreys were swimming ...

The unpredictable nature of life during the coronavirus pandemic is particularly challenging for many people. Not everyone can cope equally well with the uncertainty and loss of control. Research has shown that while a large segment of the population turns out to be resilient in times of stress and potentially traumatic events, others are less robust and develop stress-related illnesses. Events that some people experience as draining seem to be a source of motivation and creativity for others. These differing degrees of resilience demonstrate that people recover from stressful events ...

In a study recently published in Nature Communications, scientists from The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability (DTU) and Yale University have investigated how bacteria that are commonly found in sugarcane ethanol fermentation affect the industrial process. By closely studying the interactions between yeast and bacteria, it is suggested that the industry could improve both its total yield and the cost of the fermentation processes by paying more attention to the diversity of the microbial communities and choosing between good and bad bacteria. The scientists dissected yeast-bacteria interactions in sugarcane ethanol fermentation by reconstituting every possible combination ...

Fuel cells, which are attracting attention as an eco-friendly energy source, obtain electricity and heat simultaneously through the reverse reaction of water electrolysis. Therefore, the catalyst that enhances the reaction efficiency is directly connected to the performance of the fuel cell. To this, a POSTECH-UNIST joint research team has taken a step closer to developing high-performance catalysts by uncovering the ex-solution and phase transition phenomena at the atomic level for the first time. A joint research team of Professor Jeong Woo Han and Ph.D. candidate Kyeounghak Kim of POSTECH's Department of Chemical Engineering, and Professor Guntae Kim of UNIST have uncovered the mechanism by which PBMO - a catalyst used ...