A parabolic dish on the EPFL campus is easily overlooked, resembling a satellite dish or other telecommunications infrastructure. But this dish is special, because it works like an artificial tree. After concentrating solar radiation nearly 1,000 times, a reactor above the dish uses that sunlight to convert water into valuable and renewable hydrogen, oxygen, and heat. “This is the first system-level demonstration of solar hydrogen generation. Unlike typical lab-scale demonstrations, it includes all auxiliary devices and components, so it gives us a better idea of the energy efficiency you can expect ...

Using a new detection method, UC Riverside scientists found a massive amount of methane, a super-potent greenhouse gas, coming from wildfires — a source not currently being accounted for by state air quality managers. Methane warms the planet 86 times more powerfully than carbon dioxide over the course of 20 years, and it will be difficult for the state to reach its required cleaner air and climate goals without accounting for this source, the researchers said.  Wildfires emitting methane ...

McMaster University researchers have developed a rapid and inexpensive test for Salmonella contamination in chicken and other food – one that’s easier to use than a home COVID test. The test, described in a new paper in the journal Angewandte Chemie, could improve food safety, reduce the cost of processing fresh poultry and other foods, and help to limit broad recalls to batches that have specifically been identified as contaminated. The researchers have shown that the test provides accurate results in an hour or less without the need for accessories or a power source, compared ...

PULLMAN, Wash. – Discovery of a gene in multiple mammalian species could pave the way for a highly effective, reversible and non-hormonal male contraceptive for humans and animals. Washington State University researchers identified expression of the gene, Arrdc5, in the testicular tissue of mice, pigs, cattle and humans. When they knocked out the gene in mice, it created infertility only in the males, impacting their sperm count, movement and shape. The researchers detailed their findings in the journal Nature Communications. “The study identifies this gene for the first time as being expressed ...

Embargoed until Monday, April 17th at 11AM (Israel time) On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day Tel Aviv University in cooperation with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) presents   The Annual Report on Antisemitism Worldwide – 2022: Haredi Jews – The Main Target of Antisemitic Assaults 2002 saw another sharp increase in the number of antisemitic incidents in the United States and other Western countries, alongside a decline in several other countries, including France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The report found that Haredi Jews are the main victims of antisemitic assaults in the West. Physical attacks, which ...

The SIMPATHIC Consortium, led by the Radboud University Medical Center and Amsterdam UMC, has developed a new approach to expedite the use of existing drugs for groups of patients with rare neurological disorders. The consortium has been awarded an 8.8-million-euro grant from the Horizon Europe program to further develop this innovative method. Traditionally, drugs are developed one disease at a time, which is costly and time-consuming. It often takes a long time before patients can use a new drug. The international ...

Study’s findings suggest that detecting and treating depression are critical to patient health. In a recent study, having depression before or after a breast cancer diagnosis was associated with a lower likelihood of survival. The findings are published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. For the study, Bin Huang, DrPH, of the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center, and his colleagues analyzed data from the Kentucky Cancer Registry to identify adult women diagnosed with primary invasive breast cancer in 2007–2011. Utilizing the health claims–linked cancer registry data, the ...

For many teens, that first formal job as a fast-food cashier, barista or lifeguard is a rite of passage. And while some families tout the positives of job experiences, such as improving their teen’s money management skills and self-esteem, others worry about the potential to negatively impact sleep, schedules and grades, according to the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health. But finding a job that meets logistical considerations – with schedules and transportation topping the list ...

Honolulu, HI | April 17, 2023—Findings from an award-winning Scientific Online Poster presented during the 2023 ARRS Annual Meeting at the Hawaiian Convention Center suggest that correctly occluded left atrial appendages (LAAs) could present maximal reduction in left atrial (LA) flow stasis and thrombogenicity, offering a clinical goal for the procedure in patients with atrial fibrillation. Pointing out the paucity of knowledge in atrial fibrillation (AF) populations regarding the actual flow dynamic changes before and after percutaneous left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO), “we aimed to evaluate LA flow dynamics for pre-occluded, correctly occluded, and incorrectly ...

Honolulu, HI | April 17, 2023—The Global Partner Society Program of the American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) is proud to announce that Jeong Min Lee, President of the Korean Society of Radiology (KSR) and professor of radiology at South Korea’s Seoul National University Hospital, will receive Honorary Membership in ARRS during the opening ceremony of the 2023 ARRS Annual Meeting in Honolulu, HI. As per Section 6 of the ARRS bylaws, honorary members of the ARRS shall be those who have rendered valuable service ...

**Note: the release below is from the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2023, Copenhagen, 15-18 April). Please credit the conference if you use this story** COVID-19 vaccination directly saved at least 1,004,927 lives across Europe between December 2020 and March 2023, according to new research being presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Copenhagen, Denmark (15-18 April). The new estimates by WHO/Europe and presented at the conference by Dr Margaux Meslé,  Epidemiologist at WHO/Europe highlight the striking ...

**Note: the release below is from the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2023, Copenhagen, 15-18 April). Please credit the conference if you use this story** In the highly vaccinated population of Queensland exposed to the Omicron variant, long COVID appears to manifest as a post-viral syndrome of no greater incidence or severity than seasonal influenza, according to new research being presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Copenhagen, Denmark (15-18 April). The study by Queensland Health researchers suggests that despite the similarity of clinical outcomes ...

Metagenomic sequencing can provide rapid and actionable antimicrobial resistance predictions to treat bloodstream infections much faster than conventional laboratory tests, and has the potential to save lives and better manage the use of antibiotics, according to new research being presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Copenhagen, Denmark (15-18 April). The study led by Dr Kumeren Govender from the John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, ...

Mortality from COVID-19 in people with intellectual disabilities five times higher than general population Study showed death rates for cancers, mental health disorders, circulatory disorders, external causes, and other natural causes in people with intellectual disabilities were higher during the COVID pandemic than pre-pandemic Observed effects likely to be due a range of factors including disruptions to care during pandemic PLEASE NOTE Embargo: 0030H CEST Copenhagen time Monday 17 April  *Note: ...

Researchers at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology have discovered a network of connections in the brain linked to seizures in people with epilepsy. The team believe that their findings, published in Brain, will help redesign neurological operations for patients whose epilepsy can’t be controlled by medication. By disconnecting certain pathways in the frontal lobe, patients may be able to enjoy long-lasting freedom from seizures. There are 500,000 people in the UK with epilepsy and 50 million people have the condition worldwide. But one in three cannot ...

For more than half a century, the Tully monster (Tullimonstrum gregarium), an enigmatic animal that lived about 300 million years ago, has confounded paleontologists, with its strange anatomy making it difficult to classify. Recently, a group of researchers proposed a hypothesis that Tullimonstrum was a vertebrate similar to cyclostomes (jawless fish like lamprey and hagfish). If it was, then the Tully monster would potentially fill a gap in the evolutionary history of early vertebrates. Studies ...

PCB has been banned in most countries since the 1970s, but that doesn't mean it no longer exists. Now, deep-sea researchers report that they have found PCB at the bottom of the Atacama Trench in the Pacific Ocean. During their expedition to the deep-sea trench, the research team retrieved sediment cores and analyzed them for PCB occurrences at five different locations in the trench. All the samples of surface sediment analyzed contained PCB. The study, led by Professor Anna Sobek from the Department of Environmental Science at Stockholm University and Professor Ronnie N. Glud, director of the Danish Center for Hadal Research at ...

The Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI, President Kim Nam-Kyun), an internationally accredited testing and certification body for electrical equipment, has been accredited as a Type A Inspection Body by ACCREDIA, an international accreditation body in Italy. An Inspection Body verifies the performance and quality of products, and an Accreditation Body attests and supervises Inspection Bodies to ensure their competence and impartiality. ACCREDIA is a world leader in accreditation for electrical equipment. It is a full member of the International Accreditation ...

Singapore, 16 April 2023 – The SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre (AMC) announced that Distinguished Professorships have been awarded to two research luminaries from the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS). The Professorships are the highest honour bestowed upon faculty members by the SingHealth Duke-NUS AMC. Professor Teh Bin Tean, Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Research), NCCS, and Professor, Duke-NUS Medical School, was conferred the Tan Yew Oo Professorship in Pathology and Associate Professor Iain Tan Bee Huat, Division Director of Research and Senior Consultant, Division of Medical Oncology, ...

Newborns of non-refugee immigrant females are at overall lower risk of serious illness and death than those of Canadian-born females in low-income neighbourhoods in Ontario, according to new research published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.221711. Previous research has looked at the risk of adverse outcomes for newborns in low- v. high-income neighbourhoods, but there is little evidence on the respective risks for immigrant and nonimmigrant mothers living in similar low-income neighbourhoods. Both immigration status and living in a low-income ...

A new study of worldwide polling data suggests that a person’s income rank relative to their peers is linked to their experience of physical pain, with a lower income rank linked to a higher likelihood of experiencing pain. It is the first time such a relationship has been shown. The study found the link to persist, to the same degree, irrespective of whether the person lives in a rich country or a poor country. Income rank is the position of an individual’s absolute personal income amount in a list of those amounts ordered from lowest to highest.  The higher the position in the list, the higher the income ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio ­– Data from a national clinical trial shows that a striking 89% of patients with desmoplastic melanoma responded to immunotherapy (pembrolizumab) alone, suggesting that many patients could avoid the risk for toxicity from combination therapies and achieve cancer control with this approach to treatment. Desmoplastic melanoma is a subset of melanoma skin cancer that is caused by high levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation damage and, therefore, a high number of tumor mutations that all contribute to aggressive ...

Close to 90 percent of patients with unresectable (inoperable) desmoplastic melanoma, a rare form of skin cancer, saw their cancer improve after treatment with the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab in a recent clinical trial. These results from the S1512 trial conducted by the SWOG Cancer Research Network, a group funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), are being delivered in an oral presentation at the clinical trials plenary session of the 2023 annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in Orlando, Florida, on April 16th. The S1512 ...

ABSTRACT: CT006 ORLANDO, Fla. ― The first-in-class YAP/TEAD inhibitor VT3989 was well tolerated with durable antitumor responses in patients with advanced malignant mesothelioma and other tumors with NF2 mutations, according to results of a Phase I trial led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The first-in-human study was presented today at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2023. Seven of 69 patients had radiological partial responses that persisted up to at least 21 months, indicating tumor shrinkage, while 34 had stable disease. Patient benefit was observed in patients with both mesothelioma ...

ORLANDO – Despite recent advances, ovarian cancer remains the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women, and there’s a critical need for new treatment options, especially for advanced cancers that grow back after standard of care treatment. Results from a preclinical study, led by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, verified a new target for drug-resistant ovarian cancer and provided data to support a treatment approach that is already making its way into clinical trials. Sarah Gitto, PhD, an instructor of Pathology and Laboratory ...