We are truly never alone, not even within our own bodies. Human beings play host to trillions of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other microorganisms that make up the human microbiome. In recent years, the mix of these resident bacteria, and the presence of specific bacterial species, has been linked to conditions ranging from obesity to multiple sclerosis. Now, going a step farther, researchers at Harvard Medical School and Joslin Diabetes Center have gone beyond microbial species. Analyzing the genetic makeup of bacteria in the human gut, the team has successfully linked groups of bacterial genes, or "genetic signatures," to multiple diseases. The work brings scientists closer to developing ...

Optimistic predictions expect reliable autonomous vehicles to be commercially available by 2030, at a time when mobility is undergoing a profound shift away from traditional modes of transportation and towards door-to-door services. Previous analysis suggested that public transport will lose market share to autonomous vehicles, but the environmental impact of changing transport use has hardly been considered. New research shows that the convenience of autonomous vehicles would likely come at an environmental cost. A recent paper by researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison addresses the use-phase implications of autonomous vehicles using a stated preference ...

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) offers an effective, less invasive therapeutic alternative to surgical aortic valve replacement in patients with symptomatic, severe aortic stenosis. Although TAVI is demonstrated to be superior to medical therapy or surgery in patients who are at prohibitive or high risk for aortic valve surgery, less is known about TAVI in patients who are at low risk for complications or death from surgery. At EuroPCR 2021, Dr J Forrest will present the complete 2-year follow-up from the Evolut low risk trial. The Evolut Low Risk trial is a randomized noninferiority trial in which TAVI with a self-expanding supraannular bioprosthesis ...

Previous clinical trials suggested that ultra-thin strut biodegradable polymer sirolimus-eluting stent (BP-SES) may be associated with lower target lesion failure (TLF) when compared to durable polymer everolimus-eluting stents (DP-EES). However, the possible underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Therefore, the all-comers CASTLE study was designed to assess the role of imaging-guided percutaneous cardiac intervention (PCI) in the clinical outcomes difference between BP-SES vs DP-EES. BP-SES has ultra-thin struts (60μm) and a biodegradable polymer that may provide potential advantages such as reduced vessel inflammation and thrombogenicity. ...

The European Bifurcation Club Left Main (EBC MAIN) trial addressed the issue of provisional single stent versus upfront double stenting in 467 patients with true bifurcation distal left main disease. So far, only one other randomized trial, DKCRUSH-V (n=482), has addressed the same research question, showing better outcomes with an upfront two-stent strategy, more specifically the double-kissing crush (DK CRUSH) technique. In terms of methodology, two aspects need to be considered for the correct interpretation of the EBC MAIN trial results. First, both LAD and CX ostia were affected by significant disease on angiography ...

Results of the interim analyses performed after 12 months in the first 111 patients enrolled in phase II Cool AMI trial evaluating safety and effectiveness of systemic therapeutic hypothermia as an adjunctive therapy in anterior STEMI undergoing PCI as compared to PCI only. Analyses showed significant differences among treatment groups, including longer randomization-to-balloon time and total ischemic time in treatment arm, justifying premature trial discontinuation. Therapeutic mild systemic hypothermia, when achieved before reperfusion of the infarct related vessel, has shown to limit infarct size in experimental animal models. Despite ...

The ISCHEMIA trial found no significant difference between an invasive vs. a conservative strategy in patients with chronic coronary syndromes and moderate to severe ischemia at a mean of 3.2 years. However, the cumulative difference in the estimates of cardiac death between the invasive and conservative strategies tended to increase numerically over time (e.g., 0.3% in favor of the invasive strategy at 2 years and 1.3% at 5 years). Because the ISCHEMIA trial was not powered for cardiac mortality and did not focus on long-term follow-up, the rationale for a meta-analysis emerged. At EuroPCR 2021, Navarese and colleagues present the results of a new meta-analysis of revascularization plus medical therapy versus medical therapy alone. A total of 19,806 patients with chronic coronary syndromes ...

Imagine an entire twenty storey concrete building which can store energy like a giant battery. Thanks to unique research from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, such a vision could someday be a reality. Researchers from the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering recently published an article outlining a new concept for rechargeable batteries - made of cement. The ever-growing need for sustainable building materials poses great challenges for researchers. Doctor Emma Zhang, formerly of Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, joined Professor Luping Tang's research group several years ago to search for the building materials of the future. Together they have now succeeded in developing a world-first ...

Researchers have developed a tool to help governments and other organizations with limited budgets spend money on building repairs more wisely. The new tool uses artificial intelligence (AI) and text mining techniques to analyze written inspection reports and determine which work is most urgently needed. "Those assessments are now largely subjective, the opinions of people based on experience and training," said Kareem Mostafa, an engineering PhD student at the University of Waterloo who led the project. "We're using actual data on buildings to make spending decisions more objective." Researchers looked at inspection reports on the roofs of 400 schools managed by the Toronto District School Board. A computer ...

MUSC Hollings Cancer Center lung cancer researcher Gerard Silvestri, M.D., found that a lack of insurance leads to worse cancer survival than for those with Medicare, in a paper published in the May issue of Health Affairs. This work, a joint effort between Silvestri and researchers at the American Cancer Society, highlights the current dire barrier in medical care: Many people cannot take advantage of the newer potentially lifesaving treatments due to the high costs. Silvestri said the research began last year, inspired by the hotly debated topic of expanding Medicare ...

The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) under the Ministry of Science and ICT developed a roll-based damage-free transfer technique that allows two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials to be transferred into wafer scale without damage. The proposed technique has a variety of applications from transparent displays and semiconductors to displays for self-driving cars, and is expected to accelerate the commercialization of 2D nanomaterial-based high-performance devices. Dr. Kwang-Seop Kim, principal researcher of the Department of Nano-Mechanics at KIMM, succeeded in developing a technique of transferring 2D nanomaterials, as thin as 1/50,000 of a strand of hair, to a substrate of at least 4 inches (approx. 10 cm) without damage. The roll-based transfer is a process in ...

On the evening of May 6, 1937, the largest aircraft ever built by mankind, a towering example of technological prowess, slipped through the stormy skies of New Jersey and prepared to land. The airship Hindenburg was nearing the end of a three-day voyage across the Atlantic Ocean from Frankfurt, Germany. It was a spectacle and a news event. Onlookers and news crews gathered to watch the 800-foot-long behemoth touch down. And then, in one horrifying half minute, it was all over. Flames erupted from the airship's skin, fed by the flammable hydrogen gas that ...

One of the especially dangerous health risks of being extremely overweight occurs when an obese person begins to accumulate fat in their liver. This condition--non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)--is the world's most common chronic liver disease and is the primary underlying cause for liver transplants in children and adults. Without such transplants, which are available to only a small percentage of patients, NAFLD over time can be fatal. In fact, (excluding alcohol-related liver damage) more than 30,000 people a year die from NAFLD. For years, the primary way to treat NAFLD has ...

Early preterm births may be dramatically decreased with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) supplements, with a dose of 1000 mg more effective for pregnant women with low DHA levels than the 200 mg found in some prenatal supplements, according to a study led by researchers from the University of Kansas and the University of Cincinnati and published today in EClinicalMedicine, a clinical journal of The Lancet. Early preterm birth, defined as birth before 34 weeks gestation, is a serious public health issue because these births result in the highest risk of infant mortality and child disability. "This study tells us that pregnant women should be taking DHA," said Susan E. Carlson, Ph.D., professor of nutrition in the Department ...

PITTSBURGH, May 17, 2021 - Monoclonal antibodies, a COVID-19 treatment given early after coronavirus infection, cut the risk of hospitalization and death by 60% in those most likely to suffer complications of the disease, according to an analysis of UPMC patients who received the medication compared to similar patients who did not. UPMC and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine physician-scientists published the findings today in Open Forum Infectious Diseases, a journal of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. The study involved bamlanivimab, a monoclonal antibody that is now offered only in combination ...

Cultural diversity -- indicated by linguistic diversity -- and biodiversity are linked, and their connection may be another way to preserve both natural environments and Indigenous populations in Africa and perhaps worldwide, according to an international team of researchers. "The punchline is, that if you are interested in conserving biological diversity, excluding the Indigenous people who likely helped create that diversity in the first place may be a really bad idea," said Larry Gorenflo, professor of landscape architecture, geography and African studies, Penn State. "Humans are part of ecosystems and I hope this study will usher in a more committed effort to engage Indigenous people in conserving localities containing key biodiversity." Gorenflo, ...

Indigenous people have lived in the Bears Ears region of southeastern Utah for millennia. Ancestral Pueblos built elaborate houses, check dams, agricultural terraces and other modifications of the landscape, leaving ecological legacies that persist to this day. Identifying how humans interacted with past environments is critical for informing how best to protect archaeological sites and ecological diversity in the present. This "archaeo-ecosystem" approach would facilitate co-management of public lands in ways that promote Indigenous health, cultural reclamation and sovereignty. For the first time, a new study evaluated ecological legacies, archaeo-ecosystem restoration and Indigenous ...

There are roughly 50 billion individual birds in the world, a new big data study by UNSW Sydney suggests - about six birds for every human on the planet. The study - which bases its findings on citizen science observations and detailed algorithms - estimates how many birds belong to 9700 different bird species, including flightless birds like emus and penguins. It found many iconic Australian birds are numbered in the millions, like the Rainbow Lorikeet (19 million), Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (10 million) and Laughing Kookaburra (3.4 million). But other natives, like the rare Black-breasted Buttonquail, only have around 100 members left. The findings are being published this week in the Proceedings ...

Scientists studying the impact of record heat and drought on intact African tropical rainforests were surprised by how resilient they were to the extreme conditions during the last major El Niño event. The international study, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today, found that intact rainforests across tropical Africa continued to remove carbon from the atmosphere before and during the 2015-2016 El Niño, despite the extreme heat and drought. Tracking trees in 100 different tropical rainforests across six African countries, the researchers found that intact forests across the continent still removed 1.1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year from the atmosphere during the El Niño monitoring ...

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have followed the progression of breast cancer in an animal model and discovered a path that transforms a slow-growing type of cancer known as estrogen receptor (ER)+/HER2+ into a fast-growing ER-/HER2+ type that aggressively spreads or metastasizes to other organs. The study, which appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has implications for breast cancer therapy as it suggests the need to differentiate cancer subtypes according to the path the cells follow. Different paths might be linked to different cancer behavior, which should be taken into consideration to plan treatment appropriately. "In ...

Scientists have detected new early-warning signals indicating that the central-western part of the Greenland Ice Sheet may undergo a critical transition relatively soon. Because of rising temperatures, a new study by researchers from Germany and Norway shows, the destabilization of the ice sheet has begun and the process of melting may escalate already at limited warming levels. A tipping of the ice sheet would substantially increase long-term global sea level rise. "We have found evidence that the central-western part of the Greenland ice sheet has been destabilizing and is now close to a critical transition," explains lead author Niklas ...

A new technology developed by UZH researchers enables the body to produce therapeutic agents on demand at the exact location where they are needed. The innovation could reduce the side effects of cancer therapy and may hold the solution to better delivery of Covid-related therapies directly to the lungs. Scientists at the University of Zurich have modified a common respiratory virus, called adenovirus, to act like a Trojan horse to deliver genes for cancer therapeutics directly into tumor cells. Unlike chemotherapy or radiotherapy, this approach does no harm to normal healthy cells. Once inside tumor cells, the delivered genes serve as a blueprint for therapeutic ...

When doctors or scientists want to peer into living tissue, there's always a trade-off between how deep they can probe and how clear a picture they can get. With light microscopes, researchers can see submicron-resolution structures inside cells or tissue, but only as deep as the millimeter or so that light can penetrate without scattering. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses radio frequencies that can reach everywhere in the body, but the technique provides low resolution -- about a millimeter, or 1,000 times worse than light. A University of California, Berkeley, researcher has now shown that microscopic ...

PHILADELPHIA and MELBOURNE, Australia -- (May. 17, 2021) -- A team of scientists from The Wistar Institute in Philadelphia and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center in Melbourne, Australia, discovered a new checkpoint mechanism that fine-tunes gene transcription. As reported in a study published in Cell, a component of the Integrator protein complex tethers the protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) to the site of transcription allowing it to stop the activity of the RNA polymerase II enzyme (RNAPII). Disruption of this mechanism leads to unrestricted gene transcription and is implicated in cancer. The study points to new viable opportunities for therapeutic ...

Exposure to light is compulsory for photosynthetic organisms for the conversion of inorganic compounds into organic ones. However, if there is too much solar energy, the photosystems and other cell components could be damaged. Thanks to special protective proteins, the overexcitation is converted into heat - in the process called non-photochemical quenching. The object of the published study, OCP, was one of such defenders. It was first isolated in 1981 from representatives of the ancient group of photosynthetic bacteria, ?yanobacteria. OCP comprises two domains forming a cavity, in which a carotenoid pigment is embedded. "When light is absorbed by the carotenoid molecule, OCP can change from an inactive orange to an active red form. ...