LMU chemists use high-precision quantum chemistry to study key elements of super-efficient energy transfer in an important element of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the motor of all life on Earth. Complex processes are required for the sunlight-powered conversion of carbon dioxide and water to energy-rich sugar and oxygen. These processes are driven by two protein complexes, photosystems I and II. In photosystem I, sunlight is used with an efficiency of almost 100%. Here a complex network of 288 chlorophylls plays the decisive role. A team led by LMU chemist Regina de Vivie-Riedle has ...

Blind people are better at sensing their own heartbeats than sighted, shows a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Jagiellonian University in Poland. The study indicates that blindness leads to a heightened ability in feeling signals from the inner body. The findings are published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Thirty-six blind and as many sighted individuals were asked to count their own heartbeats without checking their pulse or touching their body. At the same time, the ...

An IIASA study shows that maternal education, and particularly secondary education, plays a significant role in reducing deaths in newborns and children under five years of age in both rural and urban areas of India. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.2.1. aims to end preventable deaths of newborns and under-five children by 2030. Although significant progress has been made worldwide in this regard with global under-five deaths falling from 12.5 million in 1990 to 5 million in 2020, it is still ...

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) are working on designing antennas that can empower 6G technology, which is instrumental in realising efficient V2X (Vehicle to Everything) communications. In a recent study, the team, led by Debdeep Sarkar, Assistant Professor at the Department of Electrical Communication Engineering, shows how self-interference in full-duplex communication antennas can be reduced, and consequently the movement of signals across the communication network can be faster and more bandwidth-efficient. Such full-duplex ...

A parasite which has devasting impacts on agriculture and human health is the first pathogen to have its proteins located and mapped within its cells – providing clues to their function and helping to identify potential drug targets. African trypanosomes are parasites transmitted by tsetse flies that cause sleeping sickness in humans (presenting as fever, anaemia and, in serious cases, death) and a similar disease celled nagana in cattle. These parasites have made large areas of Africa unsuitable for ...

Graphene is the strongest of all materials. On top of that, it is exceptionally good at conducting heat and electrical currents, making it one of the most special and versatile materials we know. For all these reasons, the discovery of graphene was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010. Yet, many properties of the material and its cousins are still poorly understood – for the simple reason that the atoms they are made up of are very difficult to observe. A team of researchers from the University of Amsterdam and New York University have now ...

A new high resolution model of the CA1 region of the human hippocampus has been developed by the Institute of Biophysics of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-IBF) and University of Modena e Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE), part of the Human Brain Project. The single-cell resolution model, which replicates the structure and architecture of the area, along with the position and relative connectivity of the neurons, was developed from a full-scale dataset of high resolution images. The dataset is available in the BigBrain Atlas and it will be soon available on EBRAINS. According to the study, published in the journal ...

Moderate and severe ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) developed in 1.14% of Chinese women of reproductive age between 2013 and 2017. Moreover, women under 35 years of age receiving assisted reproductive technology (ART) should be monitored for OHSS more closely compared with other age groups. These findings were concluded from the first report on the incidence of moderate and severe OHSS in China recently published in Health Data Science, a Science Partner Journal. OHSS constitutes the most severe iatrogenic ...

Hailey-Hailey disease is a rare, inherited condition characterized by patches of blisters appearing mainly in the skin folds of the arm pits, groin and under the breasts. It is caused by a mutation in the gene that codes for a specific protein involved in the transportation of calcium and manganese ions from the cell cytoplasm and into a sac-like organelle called the Golgi apparatus. Scientists at Tohoku University, together with colleagues in Japan, have uncovered some aspects of this protein's structure that could help researchers understand how it works. The findings, published ...

ChatGPT's impact extends beyond the education sector and is causing significant changes in other areas. The AI language model is recognized for its ability to perform various tasks, including paper writing, translation, coding, and more, all through question-and-answer-based interactions. The AI system relies on deep learning, which requires extensive training to minimize errors, resulting in frequent data transfers between memory and processors. However, traditional digital computer systems' von Neumann architecture separates the storage and computation of information, resulting in increased ...

A research team at POSTECH led by Professor Chulhong Kim (Department of Electrical Engineering, Department of Convergence IT Engineering, and Department of Mechanical Engineering) has compiled the findings from innovative research on contrast-enhanced photoacoustic imaging conducted over the last four years. These findings were recently featured in Chemical Reviews, a highly authoritative journal.   For decades, the scientific community has been investigating the potential of photoacoustic imaging as a biomedical imaging modality. However, despite its enhanced optical contrast and ultrasonic spatiotemporal resolution, photoacoustic imaging faces ...

FINDINGS MitoQ, a mitochondrial antioxidant that is available to the public as a diet supplement, was found in a mouse study to reverse the detrimental effects that HIV and antiretroviral therapy (ART) have on mitochondria in the brain, heart, aorta, lungs, kidney and liver.   The researchers used a molecular method to measure the ratio of human and murine mitochondrial (mtDNA) to nuclear DNA (ntDNA) ratio, a measure of mitochondrial dysfunction. Reduction in this ratio reflects mitochondrial dysfunction. Compared to uninfected mice, HIV infected mice treated with ART had mitochondrial dysfunction in the human immune cells in the brain, ...

DALLAS, March 24, 2023 — High levels of lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] are an independent, predominantly inherited and causal risk factor for cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death and disability worldwide, according to a recent American Heart Association scientific statement. It is estimated that 1 in 5 Americans have high Lp(a) levels. Studies have shown that elevated Lp(a) — a low-density lipoprotein variant containing a protein called apolipoprotein(a) — is a risk factor for atherosclerosis (buildup of fatty material in artery walls) and related ...

Dr. Natalie Uy, a leading pediatric nephrologist, has been named chief of the Division of Pediatric Nephrology in the Department of Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital, effective April 17. The Division of Pediatric Nephrology provides compassionate care for newborns, children and young adults with complex kidney diseases and urologic conditions. Services provided include dialysis and kidney transplantation for patients with end-stage kidney disease. Dr. Uy was recruited to Weill Cornell Medicine as an assistant professor of pediatrics ...

·  All racial/ethnic minority groups develop diabetes at lower weights than white adults  ·  Screening all adults aged 35 to 70 years identifies the greatest proportion of adults with prediabetes and diabetes ·  A ‘huge portion’ of the U.S. population has undiagnosed prediabetes or diabetes CHICAGO --- Focus on age, not weight, to capture the greatest number of people in all racial and ethnic groups with prediabetes and diabetes, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.  Screening all adults ...

By David Chandler As the world faces increasingly extreme and frequent weather events brought on by climate change – such as droughts, floods, heatwaves, and wildfires – critical civic resources such as food, water, and energy will be impacted. Local and regional planners need to anticipate those impacts and evaluate what measures can be taken to prepare. Now, a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional team of researchers has built a detailed framework to provide guidance to these planners. After two years of in-depth consultation ...

A new study of some 3.6 million surgeries from National Health Service (NHS) databases in England suggests that, in most cases, it will be safe to carry out planned surgery from 2 weeks after a positive COVID test, as long as the patient has recovered – compared to current guidance that recommends delaying surgery for 7 weeks. The study is published in Anaesthesia (a journal of the Association of Anaesthetists) and is by Dr Alwyn Kotzé, University of Leeds, UK and Dr Ciarán McInerney, ...

Access to artificial intelligence and machine learning is rapidly changing technology and product development, leading to more advanced, efficient and personalized applications by leveraging a massive amount of data. However, the same abilities also are in the hands of bad actors, who use AI to create malware that evades detection by the algorithms widely employed by network security tools. Government agencies, banking institutions, critical infrastructure, and the world’s largest companies and their most used products are increasingly under threat from malware that can evade anti-virus systems, hijack networks, ...

A new Series published in The Lancet describes how, although commercial entities can contribute positively to health and society, the products and practices of some commercial actors are responsible for escalating rates of avoidable ill health, planetary damage, and social and health inequity. Authors make key recommendations to ensure that contemporary capitalism is compatible with good population health.   The industries that produce just four harmful products – tobacco, alcohol, unhealthy food, and fossil fuels – account for at least a third of global deaths, illustrating the scale and huge economic cost of the problem.   Professor Rob Moodie, Series Lead ...

Peer-reviewed / Observational and modelling study / People Four-fold variation in standardised COVID-19 death rates across US states between January 2020 and July 2022 – with death rates lowest in Hawaii, New Hampshire, and Maine and highest in Arizona, Washington, DC, and New Mexico. COVID-19 exploited and compounded existing local racial inequities, health disparities, and partisan politics, resulting in a disproportionate burden of COVID-19 on communities of colour and in states that voted heavily Republican in the 2020 presidential election. No link otherwise between state governors' ...

Women with mental illness, neuropsychiatric disability, or substance abuse are less likely to go for gynaecological smear tests for cervical cancer and run more than twice the risk of developing the disease. The findings are presented in The Lancet Public Health by researchers from Karolinska Institutet, who stress the importance of proactively approaching these women as a preventative measure against cervical cancer.  In May 2020, the WHO approved a global strategy for eliminating cervical cancer as a women’s health problem. Part of the strategy is a requirement that 70 percent of women are screened for the disease at least once before age 35 and twice before ...

Generation Z children born into the poorest fifth of families in the UK are 12 times more likely to experience a raft of poor health and educational outcomes by the age of 17 compared to more affluent peers, finds a new report led by UCL researchers. The study, published in The Lancet Public Health, used data from the Millennium Cohort Study, a major study of more than 15,000 children born after the new millennium (September 2000 - January 2002) who are now in their early 20s. Researchers collected data on five adverse health and social outcomes in adolescents aged 17 years, which are known to limit life chances: ...

Children with disabilities need better support to manage their online lives and potential online risks, according to new research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA). For children with disabilities, being online and part of a well-connected community can have huge benefits. However, children with disabilities will encounter more online risks, and these can escalate more quickly than for their peers. The research shows that extra support from professionals such as teachers, youth workers and speech and language therapists does not always happen when they are learning, playing, and socialising on the Internet. It also highlights how this impacts on the ability ...

Volcanic relics scattered throughout the Australian landscape are a map of the northward movement of the continent over a ‘hotspot’ inside the Earth, during the last 35 million years. University of Queensland researchers Dr Tamini Tapu, Associate Professor Teresa Ubide and Professor Paulo Vasconcelos discovered how these relics reveal the inner structure of the Australian volcanoes became increasingly complex as the hotspot’s magma output decreased. Dr Al-Tamini ...

Overview Accurate and fast calculation of heat flow (heat transport) due to fluctuations and turbulence in plasmas is an important issue in elucidatingthe physical mechanisms and in predicting and controlling the performance of fusion reactors. A research group led by Associate Professor Motoki Nakata of the National Institute for Fusion Science and Tomonari Nakayama, a Ph.D student at the Graduate University for Advanced Studies, has successfully developed a high-precision mathematical model to predict the heat transport level. This was achieved by applying a mathematical optimization method to a lot of turbulence and heat transport ...