Researchers studying the Swiss energy market have found that making green energy the default option for consumers leads to an enduring shift to renewables and thus has the potential to cut CO2 emissions by millions of tonnes. The study, published today in Nature Human Behaviour, investigated the effect of changes in the Swiss energy market that presented energy from renewable sources as the standard option for consumers - the 'green default.' Both business and private customers largely accepted the default option, even though it was slightly more expensive, and the switch to green sources proved a lasting one. Professor Ulf Liebe (University of Warwick), Doctor Jennifer Gewinner and Professor em. Andreas Diekmann (both ETH Zurich) analysed data from two Swiss ...

New research, which brings healthcare data together with ground-breaking ecological techniques, could set a roadmap for refining pollen forecasts in the future. Current pollen forecasts, crucial for people with allergic asthma or hay fever to manage their symptoms, rely on measuring the total load of grass pollen in the atmosphere. However, these do not distinguish between pollen from different types of grass. Now, a potential link between pollen from certain grass species and respiratory health issues has been revealed. The results, published in Current Biology, (11.3.21DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.02.019 ) have been produced by the first project to use an ecological biomonitoring ...

A new study published today in Nature Medicine has identified key risk factors that increase the likelihood of individuals developing not only one but multiple non-communicable diseases, which include cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes. The analysis of over 11,000 people found that rather than being due to chance, there are often underlying biological links in individuals with multimorbidity, which is defined as the co-occurrence of two or more long-term health conditions and is a growing public health challenge. Multimorbidity, which affects about two thirds of people aged 65 years or over in the UK, impairs an individual's quality of life over and above the cumulative burden from each individual disease. Understanding which diseases ...

A national screening programme targeted at those men who are genetically pre-disposed to prostate cancer, and involving a blood test and MRI scan before an invasive biopsy, could prevent one in six prostate cancer deaths and significantly reduce over-diagnosis, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in men with around 130 new cases diagnosed in the UK every day and more than 10,000 men a year dying as a result of the disease. However, unlike breast and cervical cancer there is currently no national screening programme for this disease in the UK. Currently, men suspected of having prostate cancer have a blood test that detects raised levels of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA)*. Following the UCL-led ...

What The Study Did: Experiences of Latinx patients who were hospitalized with and survived COVID-19 are described in this study. Authors: Lilia Cervantes, M.D., of Denver Health in Colorado, 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.2021.0684) Editor's Note: The article includes 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 advisory: The full study and commentary are linked to this news release. Embed this link to provide ...

What The Study Did: This randomized clinical trial evaluated the effect on patient perceptions of communication, trust and empathy of surgeons who wore clear masks that showed their faces versus standard masks that obscured them during outpatient clinic visits. Authors: Muneera R. Kapadia, M.D., M.M.E., of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 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/jamasurg.2021.0836) Editor's Note: 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 advisory: The full ...

What The Study Did: Researchers sought to quantify cancer surgical backlog and determine whether there were differences in sociodemographic and hospital characteristics among patients undergoing cancer surgery before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Authors: Antoine Eskander, M.D., Sc.M., of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Canada, 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.2021.1104) Editor's Note: The article includes ...

What The Study Did: In this study of face mask fit among people in China, although most people used face masks in public places, compromised protection due to suboptimal airtightness was common. The simple approach of sealing the upper edge of the face mask with an adhesive tape strip was associated with substantially improved its airtightness. Authors: Lin Duo, Ph.D., of Fuwai Yunnan Cardiovascular Hospital in Kunming, China, and Chengye Sun, Ph.D., of the National Institute of Occupational Health and Poison Control, Chinese Center for Disease ...

S-acylation is the process of chemically linking a lipid to protein via a thioester bond. It is an important process of the cell that regulates the localization and function of numerous proteins. It promotes lipid membrane association of the protein, for instance to the plasma membrane, Golgi apparatus, or inner nuclear membrane. Like most biochemical processes in the cell, protein S-acylation is reversible to regulate the functions of acylated proteins. S-acylation is reversed by the enzymes acyl protein thioesterases (APTs). To do their work, APTs have to interact with the lipid membranes that their target proteins are bound to. But even though APTs are central to the important acylation deacylation process little is known about how APTs carry ...

Every year, a new growth layer is added to the narwhal's spiralled tusk. The individual layers act as an archive of data that reveals what and where the animal has eaten, providing a glimpse of how the ice and environmental conditions have changed over its long life span (up to 50 years). Same as rings in a tree trunk, every year a new growth layer is added to the narwhal's tusk, which grows longer and thicker throughout the animals life. Because the tusk is connected to the rest of body through blood, each new growth layer records aspects of animal physiology during the year it was formed. An international team of researchers ...

Philadelphia, March 11, 2021--Researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have identified genes responsible for hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) regeneration via the assembly of the ribosome, the protein factories in cells that translate mRNA sequences into amino acid sequences. The findings, which were published in Cell Stem Cell, highlight the importance of proper ribosome assembly in stem cell regeneration and identify possible targets for future therapies for ribosomopathies, childhood disorders that lead to bone marrow failure (BMF). "Although previous research showed that ...

BOSTON - In the last two decades, immunotherapy has emerged as a leading treatment for advanced renal carcinoma cancer (more commonly known as kidney cancer). This therapy is now part of the standard of care, but it doesn't work for all patients, and almost all patients, no matter how they respond initially, become more resistant to treatment over time. The immune system plays a critical role in kidney cancer disease progression and in response to therapies, and so a fundamental challenge in the field is to understand the underlying "immune circuitry" of this disease. In two new studies published today in Cancer Cell, researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard used the emerging ...

For decades, researchers assumed the cosmic rays that regularly bombard Earth from the far reaches of the galaxy are born when stars go supernova -- when they grow too massive to support the fusion occurring at their cores and explode. Those gigantic explosions do indeed propel atomic particles at the speed of light great distances. However, new research suggests even supernovae -- capable of devouring entire solar systems -- are not strong enough to imbue particles with the sustained energies needed to reach petaelectronvolts (PeVs), the amount of kinetic energy attained by very high-energy cosmic rays. And yet cosmic rays have been observed striking Earth's atmosphere at exactly those velocities, their passage marked, for example, by the detection ...

CHAPEL HILL, NC - A first-of-its-kind study out today in JAMA Surgery suggests that patients have a more difficult time understanding and building trust with their surgeons when they cannot see the surgeon's entire face due to masking requirements. These findings have major implications for not only how surgeons are viewed and rated by their patients, but also how well a patient does during and after a surgical procedure. "At beginning of pandemic I had a patient say, 'Dr. Kapadia, it's odd you've taken out a big part of my colon and I don't even know what you look like,'" Muneera Kapadia, MD, the study's senior author said. "It made me realize we don't have much information ...

Volcanologists do what they can to provide the public enough warning about impending eruptions, but volcanoes are notoriously unpredictable. Alerts are sometimes given with little time for people to react. That may soon change. Work led by research assistant professor Társilo Girona, with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, has revealed a method by which scientists -- and the public -- can have perhaps years of advance warning about a potential eruption. The solution lies in regular and widespread monitoring of the radiant temperature of a volcano's flanks before the appearance of any of the usual warning ...

DALLAS, March 11, 2021-- Silent heart attacks appear to increase stroke risk in adults 65 and older, according to preliminary research to be presented at the American Stroke Association International Stroke Conference 2021. The virtual meeting is March 17-19, 2021 and is a world premier meeting for researchers and clinicians dedicated to the science of stroke and brain health. A silent heart attack, also known as a silent myocardial infarction, has no, minimal or unrecognized symptoms. An electrocardiogram (ECG) or some form of imaging of the heart like ...

DALLAS, March 11, 2021 -- Black and Hispanic women ages 65-74 years old hospitalized with stroke had more severe strokes than their white counterparts, according to preliminary research to be presented at the American Stroke Association International Stroke Conference 2021. The virtual meeting is March 17-19, 2021 and is a world premier meeting for researchers and clinicians dedicated to the science of stroke and brain health. According to the American Heart Association, Black women have a higher rate of stroke (3.8%) when compared to white women (2.5%) of similar age, which could lead to a higher death rate or worse quality of life. "The Black and Hispanic female stroke survivors 65-84 years old were younger and had ...

Polarization control is essential for tailoring light-matter interactions and is the foundation for many applications such as polarization imaging, nonlinear optics, data storage, and information multiplexing. A linear polarizer, which is a polarization optical element that filters a specific linear polarization from unpolarized light, plays an important role in both polarization generation and manipulation. However, the generation of arbitrary polarization states other than linear polarization usually requires cascading of multiple optical polarization elements, ...

In contemporary society, the demand for high-bandwidth optical communication, including mobile high-definition videos, autonomous vehicles, remote surgery, telepresence, and interactive 3D virtual reality gaming, is sharply increasing. The electro-optical modulator is the key component for optical fiber communication, which modulates the light signal for loading information through electricity. Lithium niobate (LiNbO3, LN) exhibits a high-performance electro-optic effect and high optical transparency. On the other hand, the ferroelectric domain engineering on LN crystals has been ...

A team of researchers from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research's (A*STAR) Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) have developed a CRISPR-based gene editor, C-to-G Base Editor (CGBE), to correct mutations that cause genetic disorders. Their research was published in Nature Communications on 2 March 2021. One in seventeen people in the world suffers from some type of genetic disorder. Chances are, you or someone you know - a relative, friend, or colleague - is one of approximately 450 million people affected worldwide. Mutations responsible for these disorders can be caused by ...

The Healthy Diet Index developed by Finnish nutrition experts facilitates the assessment of diet quality. Its effectiveness was demonstrated in a recently published study. Dietary counselling plays a crucial role in the prevention and treatment of chronic lifestyle diseases. In healthcare settings, dietary counselling is often provided by professionals without specific training in nutrition, and there is a demand for tools for reliable and easy assessment of diet quality. One such tool is the Healthy Diet Index developed in the recently completed Stop Diabetes (StopDia) project. The Healthy Diet ...

Dietary and infant feeding guidelines should be strengthened to include more practical advice on the best ways to support children to learn to like and eat vegetables, say nutrition and dietetics researchers from the Flinders University Caring Futures Institute. With the Australian Health Survey showing only 6% of children aged 2-17 years are eating the recommended amount of veggies, experts say more tailored practical advice is needed on how to offer vegetables to young children through repeated exposure and daily variety in order to increase their intake. A recent paper co-authored by researchers from Caring Futures Institute and CSIRO, Australia's national ...

Patients suffering from dry eye disease symptoms have a lower quality of life compared to those without symptoms, a new study reports. The findings showed that patients with the condition reported negative effects on visual function, their ability to carry out daily activities and their work productivity. Dry eye disease is a common condition and a frequent reason for patients to seek medical care. It can affect people of any age but is most prevalent in women and in older people. Symptoms include irritation and redness in the eyes, blurred vision, and a sensation of grittiness or a foreign body in the eye. It has been reported that up to a third of adults over 65 years old have the condition, although the actual number is likely to be higher as there is no established ...

Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors can host a rich set of excitonic species because of the greatly enhanced Coulomb interactions. The excitonic states can exhibit large oscillator strengths and strong light-matter interactions, and dominate the optical properties of 2D semiconductors. In addition, because of the low dimensionality, excitonic dynamics of 2D semiconductors can be more susceptible to various external stimuli, enriching the possible tailoring methods that can be exploited. Understanding the factors that can influence the dynamics of the optically-generated excited states represents an important aspect of excitonic physics in 2D ...

Today, machine learning based methods are of our everyday life, with millions of users every day unlocking their phones through facial recognition or passing through AI-enabled automated security checks at airports and train stations. Traditionally, the processing of information native to the optical domain is being executed in the electronic domain, requiring energy-hungry specialized electronic hardware and conversion between the two realms. Optical machine learning is emerging as an important field, where the processing of optical information is done directly within the optical domain, power-efficient and at the speed of light. Machine learning tasks, such as pattern recognition or image classification, rely heavily on the multiplication of large matrices, a resource-hungry ...