**Note: the release below is a special early release from the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2023, Copenhagen, 15-18 April). Please credit the congress if you use this story** Embargo: 2301H UK time Thurs 6 April   Adults hospitalised with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant have a higher death rate than those hospitalised with seasonal influenza, even though Omicron is considered less virulent with lower case fatality rates than the delta and alpha strains, new research being presented at this year’s ...

IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON PRESS RELEASE Under STRICT EMBARGO until: Thursday 6 April 2023 23:30 UK TIME / 19:30 ET Peer-reviewed / Observational study / People Spread of COVID-19 in households is linked to virus on hands and surfaces, say researchers A new Imperial College London-led study provides the first empirical evidence for transmission of SARS-CoV-2 via people’s hands and frequently touched household surfaces. The research sheds new light on the spread of COVID-19 in households, where most transmission of SARS-CoV-2 occurs, and it is the first to link the presence ...

Environmental Impact Assessments may hugely underestimate the effect that new developments have on wildlife, according to new research from the University of East Anglia. This is because they don’t take into account how birds and other animals move around between different sites. A study published today shows how a new airport development planned in Portugal could affect more than 10 times the number of Black-tailed Godwits estimated in a previous Environmental Impact Assessment. The research team have been studying these Godwits across Europe for over 30 years but they say that any species that moves around is likely to be under-represented ...

Using solar energy and photocatalysts to convert CO2 into high value-added chemicals can simultaneously alleviate the greenhouse effect and energy shortage, being recognized to be a promising alternative to achieve sustainable social development. Single atom cocatalysts decoration has been demonstrated to be effective strategy to improve the CO2 photocatalytic reduction efficiency. Unfortunately, when unraveling the mechanism behind performance promotion, most studies mainly focused on clarifying the superior ...

The U.S. experienced an unprecedented number of group A streptococcal infections in children from October to December of 2022, which should alert physicians to check for the potentially deadly infectious disease as the country moves out of the pandemic, according to research published by UTHealth Houston. The study, led by senior author Anthony R. Flores, MD, PhD, MPH, associate professor and chief of pediatric infectious diseases at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, was published this month in Clinical Infectious Diseases. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the rate of other infectious diseases dropped due to safety measures such as social distancing and mask-wearing, according ...

Michael Schulz, assistant professor of chemistry within the Virginia Tech College of Science, has received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award. The award, which begins in May, comes on the heels of Schulz receiving a U.S. Department of Energy 2022 Early Career Research Program Award. Schulz received the foundation's five-year $725,000 for the project titled "CAREER: Novel Approaches to Hyperbranched Polymers" to develop ruthenium-catalyzed self-condensing Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization to prepare hyperbranched polymers. The award comes ...

Industrial cultivation of hemp is seeing a massive expansion in the United States due to new federal laws and consumer demand. Because of these changes in regulation, part of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, researchers are legally able to perform tests on hemp and growers can produce plants. In 2021, hemp, which has a THC concentration of less than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis, was grown on 54,000 acres with a value of more than $824 million, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In partnership with York University in Ontario, Canada, and the ...

Reston, VA—A simple blood draw can provide physicians with valuable information that can determine if peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) is likely to be effective in a patient with neuroendocrine cancer. The blood-based biomarker PPQ can predict which patients will respond to PRRT with 96 percent accuracy; changes in another biomarker, NETest, correctly correlate with PRRT response in 90 percent of patients. The study, published in the April issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Engineers at Duke University have produced the world’s first fully recyclable printed electronics that replace the use of chemicals with water in the fabrication process. By bypassing the need for hazardous chemicals, the demonstration points down a path industry could follow to reduce its environmental footprint and human health risks. The research appeared online Feb. 28 in the journal Nano Letters. One of the dominant challenges facing any electronics manufacturer is successfully securing several layers of components on ...

There is extensive research on how a fixed-position flap affects lift in the realm of fluid-structure interaction. However, taking the conversation in a new direction, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign conducted a bio-inspired study with a novel twist—variable stiffness—to learn more about how it affects lift. The researchers wondered if they could model a flap on an airfoil, or wing, with varying stiffnesses over time much like a bird can tense, or stiffen, the musculature and tendons connected to covert feathers. “We know from previous studies ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Broccoli is known to be beneficial to our health. For example, research has shown that increased consumption of the cruciferous vegetable decreases incidences of cancer and type 2 diabetes. In a recent study, researchers at Penn State found that broccoli contains certain molecules that bind to a receptor within mice and help to protect the lining of the small intestine, thereby inhibiting the development of disease. The findings lend support to the idea that broccoli truly is a ‘superfood.’  “We ...

A rapid spike in cases of a potentially deadly, drug-resistant fungus has concerned public health officials across the nation. But a team of Southern Nevada researchers hope their new study applying wastewater surveillance can help health officials get a step ahead of this emerging global public health threat. The Pathogen Problem Candida auris is a fungus that can cause serious infections, particularly in patients who are immunocompromised, have pre-existing health conditions, are in long-term healthcare settings, or are undergoing treatment with invasive medical devices such as a catheter. Infection prevention ...

Giving pregnant women routine third trimester ultrasound scans could reduce rates of undetected breech pregnancy by 71%, enabling better care before and during labor and improved outcomes for newborns In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Medicine: http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004192 Article Title: Impact of point-of-care ultrasound and routine third trimester ultrasound on undiagnosed breech presentation and perinatal outcomes: An observational multicentre cohort study Author Countries: United Kingdom, Turkey Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work. END ...

An implant that delivers electrical stimulation to a select group of spinal neurons can treat dangerously low blood pressure in people with spinal cord injuries, addressing an often “invisible” consequence of paralysis. For his work in developing this treatment, called the neuroprosthetic baroreflex, Jordan W. Squair is the winner of the 2023 BioInnovation Institute & Science Prize for Innovation. The prize seeks to reward scientists who deliver research at the intersection of the life sciences and entrepreneurship. “Dr. Squair’s prize-winning research on epidural electrical stimulation restores blood pressure control in patients ...

In an editorial, Maria Van Kerkhove – who serves as the technical lead for the COVID-19 response at the World Health Organization (WHO) – outlines how earlier this month (March 2023), WHO learned that scientists in China possessed data on viral samples from Wuhan that had been gathered in January 2020. “These should have been shared immediately—not 3 years later,” she writes. “The lack of data disclosure is simply inexcusable.” WHO continues to call on China and all countries to share any data on the origins of SARS-CoV-2 immediately. “China has advanced technical capabilities,” Van ...

Male yellow crazy ants (Anoplolepis gracilipes) are chimeras of two separate genetic lineages, researchers report in a study that reveals a unique mode of reproduction in this species – one previously unknown to science. While most multicellular organisms develop from a single-cell zygote into a collection of genetically identical cells – a hallmark of biological inheritance – the new findings show that yellow crazy ants deviate from this expectation. According to the study, all male yellow crazy ants are instead composed ...

First ever study looking at disease risks of wild meat activities in rural communities. Nearly 70% of rural respondents at Kenya-Tanzania border said that COVID-19 did not impact their levels of wild meat consumption, with some even reporting increased consumption. Ungulates were found to be the most consumed species, followed by birds, rodents and shrews. Governments need to focus on better controlling zoonotic disease transmission risks through community engagements on behavior change interventions, improving hygiene and standards of informal markets, supporting wildlife conservation ...

A class of polyesters considered a promising alternative to common plastics, were it not for limitations like brittleness and thermal instability, have now been made more mechanically tough and thermally stable. Researchers replaced the reactive hydrogens in the monomer of these materials –  polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) plastics – and found it enhanced PHA thermal and mechanical properties and enabled closed-loop chemical recyclability. The new approach could provide a route for increased use of sustainable PHA plastics. ...

Developed at Harvard, and successfully tested at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), a revolutionary new meta-optics for microscopes with extremely high spatial and temporal resolution has proven its functional ability in laboratory tests at the Institute of Experimental Physics at TU Graz. Microscopes using this kind of lens promise completely new research and development approaches, especially in semiconductor and solar cell technology. The research team from Graz and Boston currently reports on the construction and the successful laboratory experiment with this new meta-optics in the specialist journal Science. The lens of ...

MADISON – In an advance they consider a breakthrough in computational chemistry research, University of Wisconsin–Madison chemical engineers have developed model of how catalytic reactions work at the atomic scale. This understanding could allow engineers and chemists to develop more efficient catalysts and tune industrial processes — potentially with enormous energy savings, given that 90% of the products we encounter in our lives are produced, at least partially, via catalysis. Catalyst materials accelerate chemical reactions without undergoing changes themselves. ...

The human body is capable of creating a vast, diverse repertoire of antibodies—the Y-shaped sniffer dogs of the immune system that can find and flag foreign invaders. Despite our ability to create a range of antibodies to target viruses, humans create antibodies that target the same viral regions again and again, according to a new study led by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, and Harvard Medical School. These “public epitopes” mean that the generation ...

New research conducted by the University of Houston Conrad N. Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership suggests the Black Lives Matter movement had a significant, positive impact on the fundraising efforts of Black restaurateurs. In a study published in the International Journal of Hospitality Management, the researchers found in the decade before Black Lives Matter rose to prominence, Black restaurateurs were 76% less likely to be successful in the use of crowdfunding sources, such as Kickstarter, than non-Black restaurateurs. From 2010 – 2015, funding was 72% lower for Black-owned businesses and from 2016-2020 it was 79% lower. But that all changed ...

Professor Arthur Ragauskas awarded Royal Society of Chemistry prize  He is based at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and University of Tennessee He chose to receive award at Aston University because of its research into renewable resources. Aston University has hosted a prestigious Royal Society of Chemistry prize-giving and lecture. Professor Arthur Ragauskas of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and University of Tennessee chose the University as the venue for this event because its research into renewable resources has inspired his work. He is the recipient of the Society’s 2022 environment, sustainability and energy division open award: Environment ...

Professor Richard Hogg will be joining Aston Institute of Photonics Technologies It is a leading photonics research centre, with a successful track record of scientific achievements Professor Hogg will be focusing on research and commercialisation.     Aston University is to welcome Professor Richard Hogg who will be joining its flagship photonics research institute He will be focusing on research and commercialisation at Aston Institute for Photonic Technologies,  Aston University’s Aston Institute of Photonics Technologies (AIPT) a leading photonics research institute with a successful track record of ...

NASA and the James Webb Space Telescope industry team, led by Northrop Grumman Corporation, have won the prestigious National Aeronautic Association (NAA) Robert J. Collier Trophy for revolutionizing the field of astrophysics with the team’s pioneering design and exceptional performance of the telescope. The Collier Trophy is awarded annually for “the greatest achievement in aerospace and astronautics in America.” The award will be presented at the NAA Gala in Washington, D.C., on June 15. “The James Webb Space ...