A staged alert system, designed by scientists and public health officials to guide local policies, helped one city prevent hospital surges and long lockdowns, according to new research published in the journal Nature Communications. In a new study led by The University of Texas at Austin COVID-19 Modeling Consortium in collaboration with Northwestern University, researchers describe the system that has guided COVID-19 policies in Austin, Texas, for more than a year, helping to safeguard the health care system and avoid costly measures. It tracks the number of new daily COVID-19 hospital admissions and triggers changes in guidance when admissions cross specific threshold values. While using this staged alert system, the Austin metropolitan area has sustained the ...

A hydrogel that forms a barrier to keep heart tissue from adhering to surrounding tissue after surgery was developed and successfully tested in rodents by a team of University of California San Diego researchers. The team of engineers, scientists and physicians also conducted a pilot study on porcine hearts, with promising results. They describe their work in the June 18, 2021 issue of Nature Communications. In rats, the hydrogel prevented the formation of adhesions altogether. In a small pilot study, porcine hearts treated with the hydrogel experienced less severe adhesions that were easier to remove. In addition, the hydrogel did not appear to cause chronic inflammation. Adhesions--organ tissue sticking to surrounding tissue--are a relatively ...

"Any problem can be solved with a little ingenuity". While they may not be the originators of this quote, recent work from researchers at Osaka Prefecture University into understanding the molecular orientation of hybrid thin-film material is a concrete example of its central message. "We wanted everyone to have access to this knowledge," states research lead Professor Masahide Takahashi of the OPU Graduate School of Engineering. Using laboratory-grade equipment with 3D printable optical setups, his research group has established an easy, versatile, yet highly sensitive approach ...

Sophia Antipolis - 18 June 2021: A small feasibility study has suggested that tai chi has the potential to reduce depression, anxiety and stress plus improve sleep in people who have had a stroke. The research is presented today at EuroHeartCare - ACNAP Congress 2021, an online scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).1 Depression occurs in approximately one-third of stroke survivors and is linked with greater disability and mortality rates.2,3 Individuals with post-stroke depression frequently also report anxiety, stress, and poor sleep.4-6 Tai chi focuses on releasing tension in the body, incorporating mindfulness and imagery into movement, increasing awareness and efficiency of breathing, and promoting overall relaxation of body and mind. "Mind-body ...

While postpartum depression in new mothers is well recognized and known to increase if the newborn requires intensive care, depression in new fathers has not received much attention. A large study, published in the journal Pediatrics, found that both parents with a baby in the NICU are at risk, with depression symptoms identified in 33 percent of mothers and 17 percent of fathers. Strikingly, the probability of reporting depression symptoms declined significantly for mothers but not for fathers after the baby came home. "Our findings point to the need for increased attention to the mental health of new fathers, during their baby's NICU stay and after discharge," said lead author Craig F. ...

An incredibly light new material that can reduce aircraft engine noise and improve passenger comfort has been developed at the University of Bath. The graphene oxide-polyvinyl alcohol aerogel weighs just 2.1kg per cubic metre, making it the lightest sound insulation ever manufactured. It could be used as insulation within aircraft engines to reduce noise by up to 16 decibels - reducing the 105-decibel roar of a jet engine taking off to a sound closer to that of a hair-dryer. The aerogel's meringue-like structure makes it extremely light, meaning it could act as an insulator within aircraft engine nacelles, with almost no increase ...

Just how do spiders walk straight up -- and even upside-down across -- so many different types of surfaces? Answering this question could open up new opportunities for creating powerful, yet reversible, bioinspired adhesives. Scientists have been working to better understand spider feet for the past several decades. Now, a new study in END ...

Researchers from Colorado State University, Amazon, and Dartmouth College published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that examines the role of physical stores for selling "deep" products. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled "How Physical Stores Enhance Customer Value: The Importance of Product Inspection Depth" and is authored by Jonathan Zhang, Chunwei Chang, and Scott Neslin. While some traditional offline retailers are struggling and are closing stores (e.g., Macy's, Walgreens), online retailers are opening them (e.g., Amazon, Warby Parker). This conflicting trend ...

June 17, 2021, Nutley, NJ - During two months at the height of the first wave of COVID-19, Hackensack Meridian Health experts helped find the best way to triage and prioritize necessary surgeries across the health network. Their work allowed the system to keep up with crucial care - and it may help point the way forward in case of future emergencies. The health network experts implemented the medically necessary time sensitive (MeNTS) surgical scoring system developed by the University of Chicago to triage the case load across the health system, the largest in New Jersey. The results are published now in The American Journal of Surgery, and the lead author is a medical student at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine. "This is critical work and it shows how important teamwork ...

Over the past three decades, fundamental groundwork for building quantum computers has been pioneered at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. As part of the EU Flagship Quantum Technologies, researchers at the Department of Experimental Physics in Innsbruck have now built a demonstrator for a compact ion trap quantum computer. "Our quantum computing experiments usually fill 30- to 50-square-meter laboratories," says Thomas Monz of the University of Innsbruck. "We were now looking to fit the technologies developed here in Innsbruck into the smallest possible space while meeting standards commonly used in industry." The new device aims to show that quantum computers will soon be ready for use in data centers. "We were able to show that ...

The glaciers of Nanga Parbat - one of the highest mountains in the world - have been shrinking slightly but continually since the 1930s. This loss in surface area is evidenced by a long-term study conducted by researchers from the South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University. The geographers combined historical photographs, surveys, and topographical maps with current data, which allowed them to show glacial changes for this massif in the north-western Himalaya as far back as the mid-1800s. Detailed long-term glacier studies that extend the observation period to the time before the ubiquitous ...

How much do traditional practices contribute to the protection of local biodiversity? Why and how are sacred groves locally valued and protected, and how can this be promoted and harnessed for environmental protection? Working together with the University of Kurdistan, researchers of the University of Göttingen and the University of Kassel have examined the backgrounds of this form of local environmental protection in Baneh County, Iran. "Around the world, local communities are voluntarily protecting certain parts of their surroundings due to religious ...

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch have observed that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can infect the testes of infected hamsters. The findings, published in the journal Microorganisms, could help explain symptoms some men with COVID-19 have reported and have important implications for men's health. As the pandemic goes on, clinicians continue to report their findings that COVID-19 affects more than just the lungs. Some patients have reported testicular pain and some reports have shown decreases in testosterone, a key hormone produced in the ...

Below please find a summary for a new article that will be published today in Annals of Internal Medicine. The summary is not intended to substitute for the full article as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of the organization they represent. FDA advisory panelist outlines numerous issues with aducanumab's accelerated approval for Alzheimer's disease Abstract: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M21-2603 URL ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Surgeons may soon be able to localize critical regions in tissues and organs during a surgical operation thanks to a new, patent-pending Purdue University biosensor that can be printed in 3D using an automated printing system. Chi Hwan Lee created the biosensor, which allows for simultaneous recording and imaging of tissues and organs during a surgical operation. Lee is the Leslie A. Geddes Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and assistant professor of mechanical engineering. Lee also has a courtesy appointment in materials engineering. "Simultaneous recording and imaging could be useful during heart surgery in localizing critical regions and guiding ...

In the realm of social media, anti-science views about COVID-19 align so closely with political ideology -- especially among conservatives -- that its predictability offers a strategy to help protect public health, a new USC study shows. Resistance to science, including the efficacy of masks and vaccines, poses a challenge to conquering the coronavirus crisis. The goal of achieving herd immunity won't happen until society achieves consensus about science-based solutions. The USC study's machine-learning assisted analysis of social media communications offers policymakers and public health officials new tools to anticipate shifts in attitudes ...

A rare parasitic infection imported from Europe continues to take root in Alberta, Canada. The province is now the North American hotspot for human alveolar echinococcosis (AE), which takes the form of a growth in the liver, causing serious and potentially deadly health complications. A END ...

Only 2% of vehicles are electrified to date, but that is projected to reach 30% in 2030. A key toward improving the commercialization of electric vehicles (EVs) is to heighten their gravimetric energy density - measured in watt hours per kilogram - using safer, easily recyclable materials that are abundant. Lithium-metal in anodes are considered the "holy grail" for improving energy density in EV batteries compared to incumbent options like graphite at 240 Wh/kg in the race to reach more competitive energy density at 500 Wh/kg. Yan Yao, Cullen Professor of electrical ...

MIAMI--In a new analysis on managed retreat--the climate adaptation response of moving people and property out of harm's way--researchers explore what it would take for managed retreat to be supportive of people and their priorities. A key starting point is considering retreat alongside other responses like coastal armoring and not just as an option of last resort. In a new paper in the journal Science, University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science researcher Katharine Mach argues that managed retreat should be viewed as a proactive option that can support communities and livelihoods in the face of climate change. "Managed retreat ...

The surface of a material often has properties that are very different from the properties within the material. For example, a non-conducting crystal, which actually exhibits no magnetism, can show magnetisation restricted to its surface because of the way the atoms are arranged there. These distinct properties at interfaces and surfaces of materials often play a key role in the development of new functional components such as optoelectronic chips or sensors and are therefore subject to extensive research. An international research team from the University of Göttingen, the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry Göttingen and the National Research Council Canada has now succeeded in investigating the surfaces of transparent crystals using ...

Understanding cellular metabolism - how a cell uses energy- could be key to treating a wide array of diseases, including vascular diseases and cancer. While many techniques can measure these processes among tens of thousands of cells, researchers have been unable to measure them at the single-cell level. Researchers at the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and Biological Sciences Division have developed a combined imaging and machine learning technique that can, for the first time, measure a metabolic process at both the cellular and sub-cellular levels. Using a genetically encoded biosensor paired with artificial intelligence, ...

PHILADELPHIA - Sour taste does not have the nearly universal appeal that sweet taste does. Slightly sour foods or drinks such as yogurt and lemon juice are yummy to many, but such highly sour foods as spoiled milk are yucky, even dangerous. Like humans, many other animals, including insects, prefer slightly acidic over very acidic foods. Evolutionary biologists surmise that the need for sour detection to be finely tuned is a two-sided coin: slightly acidic foods can enhance digestion and stimulate saliva production; relative sour-to-sweet taste can signal optimal ripeness of fruit; and extremely sour food, as with bitter taste, is a warning to what not to ingest. However, despite this usefulness, how do animals discern different concentrations ...

The brain presents different states depending on the communication between billions of neurons, and this network is the basis of all our perceptions, memories, and behaviours. It is often considered a "black box", with difficult access for clinicians and researchers, as few limited tools are available to perform accurate and spaciotemporal studies on brain neuronal behaviour. Now, researchers from the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) in collaboration with August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS) and have added some light to the subject: they succeeded for the first time in controlling neuronal activity in the brain using a molecule responsive to light. The study included participants ...

MADISON - In early January 2021, travelers returning to Tokyo, Japan, from Amazonas, Brazil, were screened for COVID-19 at the airport. A few days later, the National Institute of Infectious Disease of Japan announced that the travelers had returned with a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. That variant, known as gamma, or P.1, led to a deadly surge in COVID-19 cases in Brazil this spring, and has now spread across the world. More than 200 cases have been detected in Wisconsin. Whether current vaccines are as effective against the gamma variant remains unknown. In a new study using variant virus recovered from one of the original travelers, ...

University of Delaware disaster researcher A.R. Siders said it's time to put all the options on the table when it comes to discussing climate change adaptation. Managed retreat -- the purposeful movement of people, buildings and other assets from areas vulnerable to hazards -- has often been considered a last resort. But Siders said it can be a powerful tool for expanding the range of possible solutions to cope with rising sea levels, flooding and other climate change effects when used proactively or in combination with other measures. Siders, a core faculty member in UD's Disaster Research Center, and Katharine J. Mach, associate professor at the University ...