Neutrons - Space ice, un-Earthly cold Researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory successfully created amorphous ice, similar to ice in interstellar space and on icy worlds in our solar system. They documented that its disordered atomic behavior is unlike any ice on Earth. The findings could help interpret data from future NASA missions such as Europa Clipper, which will assess the habitability of Jupiter's moon, Europa. Using the Spallation Neutron Source's SNAP instrument, the scientists replicated the cold vacuum of space and added a few molecules ...

Single atomic defect is the smallest structural unit of solid material. The construction of devices based on single defect can reach the limit of miniaturization of semiconductor devices. In the past decades, the creation and manipulation of single defects in semiconductors opened a new research field, and could be used to physically realize "qubits" of solid-state quantum computation through spin or electron charge. Most interest have focused on the studies of spin quantum computing. However, the spin manipulation need an optical and magnetic field. On the contrary, multiple ...

Leipzig. The smoke from the extreme forest fires on the US West Coast in September 2020 travelled over many thousands of kilometres to Central Europe, where it continued to affect the atmosphere for days afterwards. A comparison of ground and satellite measurements now shows: The forest fire aerosol disturbed the free troposphere over Leipzig in Germany as never before. An evaluation by an international research team led by the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) revealed an extraordinary optical thickness on 11 September 2020, which attenuated ...

Oncotarget published "Development of a ghrelin receptor inverse agonist for positron emission tomograph" which reported that imaging of Ghrelin receptors in vivo provides unique potential to gain deeper understanding on Ghrelin and its receptors in health and disease, in particular, in cancer. Ghrelin, an octanoylated 28-mer peptide hormone, activates the constitutively active growth hormone secretagogue receptor type 1a with nanomolar activity. The authors developed novel compounds, derived from the potent inverse agonist K- -FwLL-NH2 but structurally varied by lysine conjugation ...

Oncotarget published "Global DNA hypermethylation pattern and unique gene expression signature in liver cancer from patients with Indigenous American ancestry" which reported that contrasting with this pattern, the age structure of HCC in Andean people displays a bimodal distribution with half of the patients developing HCC in adolescence and early adulthood. To deepen the understanding of the molecular determinants of the disease in this population, the authors conducted an integrative analysis of gene expression and DNA methylation in HCC developed by 74 Peruvian patients, including 39 adolescents and young adults. While genome-wide hypomethylation ...

New research from the Prevention Research Center of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, The Ohio State University, and San Jose State University finds that during COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, parental stress was higher during the workday compared to after the workday and lower during weekends than during weekdays. Previous research compares parental stress before and during the pandemic, but none has measured it during stay-at-home orders. In this study, scientists assessed how time-varying and day-varying factors are related to parents' level of stress. In specific, stress was examined 3 times a day for 14 days for survey participants in Ohio from April to May 2020. Specific findings include: Parents ...

University of Queensland scientists working to unlock the mysteries Australia's deadly stonefish have made a discovery which could change how sting victims are treated in the future. Stonefish are the most venomous fish in world and are found throughout shallow coastal waters of the northern half of Australia. Study co-author Associate Professor Bryan Fry said previous studies have not been able to uncover all of the mechanisms at play in stonefish venom because of the way the venom was tested. "There's a couple of reasons previous studies haven't been able to thoroughly decipher the toxicological mysteries of stonefish venom," Dr Fry said. "But ...

Oncotarget published "Multi-modal effects of 1B3, a novel synthetic miR-193a-3p mimic, support strong potential for therapeutic intervention in oncology" which reported that the authors comprehensively investigated miRNA-193a-3p's mode of action in a panel of human cancer cell lines, with a variety of genetic backgrounds, using 1B3, a synthetic microRNA mimic. Interestingly, the exact mechanism through which 1B3 reduced cell proliferation varied between cell lines. 1B3 efficiently reduced target gene expression, leading to reduced cell proliferation/survival, cell cycle arrest, induction of apoptosis, increased cell senescence, DNA damage, and inhibition of migration. SiRNA ...

A local research team, comprised of members of the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials(KIMM) under the Ministry of Science and ICT and UNIST, developed a metamaterial absorber that significantly enhances the detection of harmful substances or biomolecules, and published their results in Small Methods. The joint research team led by Principal Researcher Dr. Joo-Yun Jung of the Nano-Convergence Mechanical Systems Research Division at KIMM and Professor Jongwon Lee of UNIST developed a metamaterial that enhances infrared absorption spectroscopy through 100-fold amplification of detection signals. The proposed metamaterial is a special functional material with vertical nanogaps of a smaller size than infrared wavelength. Infrared spectroscopy is a technique that identifies ...

Recently, the research team led by Prof. KONG Lingtao from Institute of Solid State Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) prepared a highly active single iron atom catalyst (Fe-ISAs@CN) which can activate H2O2 to generate free radicals, achieving rapid removal of sulfadiazine pollutants in aqueous. The relevant results were published in Journal of Colloid and Interface Science. Sulfadiazine (SDZ), a kind of synthetic sulfadiazine antibiotic, is widely used in clinical and animal husbandry industries. However, due to its large-scale use and unqualified discharge of wastewater, more and more antibiotic residues ...

Recently, the research team led by Prof. KONG Lingtao from Institute of Solid State Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) prepared a highly active single iron atom catalyst (Fe-ISAs@CN) which can activate H2O2 to generate free radicals, achieving rapid removal of sulfadiazine pollutants in aqueous. The relevant results were published in Journal of Colloid and Interface Science. Sulfadiazine (SDZ), a kind of synthetic sulfadiazine antibiotic, is widely used in clinical and animal husbandry industries. However, due to its large-scale use and unqualified discharge of wastewater, more and more antibiotic residues are detected in the ...

Graphene-based materials can be obtained using various reducing agents, many of which are dangerous and toxic chemicals, and the obtained graphene-based materials are prone to aggregation, limiting their practical applications. Recently, a research group of Prof. HUANG Qing from the Institute of Intelligent Machines, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS), prepared graphene-based nanozymes through a simple and green preparation method, and verified that it can be used to detect L-cysteine in serum. The study, published in Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation ...

According to the theory of planet formation, rocky bodies such as the Earth were formed by repeating collisions from dusty materials. In this process, a number of Mercury- or Mars-sized planetary embryos, were formed, and eventually these bodies merged together and formed terrestrial planets in our solar system. During the formation of the planetary embryos, the interior of these bodies was likely to be molten due to the heat by radiative-decay elements and a collisional energy of the planetary embryos. At this stage, iron and silicate separate, and form the metallic core and ...

It might seem like a given that mothers take extra risks to protect their children, but have you ever wondered why? A new study led by Kumi Kuroda at the RIKEN Center for Brain Science (CBS) in Japan shows that in mice, this and other nurturing behaviors are driven in part by neurons in a small part of the forebrain that contain a protein called the calcitonin receptor. The study was published in Cell Reports. Many simple behaviors, such as eating and drinking, are driven by different parts of the brain's hypothalamus. The new study focused on identifying the part that drives a much more complicated behavior: caring for infants. As Kuroda explains, "we were able to narrow down the brain cells necessary ...

Most prescriptions for the drug buprenorphine, used to treat opioid use disorder, are written by a small number of the health care providers, according to a new RAND Corporation study. Published in the June 1 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the study found that half of all patient-months of buprenorphine treatment during 2016 and 2017 were prescribed by just 4.9% of the physicians and other providers who prescribed the drug during the period. "These findings have important implications for efforts to increase buprenorphine access," said Dr. Bradley D. Stein, the study's lead author and a senior physician researcher at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. "Our study suggests that targeted efforts to encourage more current prescribers to become high-volume ...

In a recent study, Australian scientists used an original approach to resolve the 3D structure of flaviviruses with an unprecedented level of detail, identifying small molecules known as 'pocket factors' as new therapeutic targets. Flaviviruses infect humans by mosquito or tick bite, with symptoms ranging from fever and myalgia to life-threatening neurological and congenital conditions. Flaviviruses such as dengue, yellow fever and Zika threaten almost a third of the world's population, and new flaviviruses emerge regularly from animal reservoirs with the potential to cause epidemics. ...

A research team led by scientists at Université de Montréal has developed a unique observational tool for assessing children up to 5 years of age who have had a concussion. The work is explained in a study published in the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation. Pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) is particularly prevalent in toddlers; they're more likely to be injured because they have a lower sense of danger and are still developing physically. But parents and clinicians have trouble detecting symptoms of trauma, given the toddler's limited verbal skills. "A young child will not tell you that they have a headache or feel dizzy," said Dominique Dupont, an UdeM postdoctoral student in neuropsychology and first author of the study. "But assessing post-concussion symptoms ...

PHILADELPHIA--An odor-based test that sniffs out vapors emanating from blood samples was able to distinguish between benign and pancreatic and ovarian cancer cells with up to 95 percent accuracy, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Penn's Perelman School of Medicine. The findings suggest that the Penn-developed tool -- which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to decipher the mixture of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitting off cells in blood plasma samples -- could serve as a non-invasive approach ...

Our lives today are governed by electronics in all shapes and forms. Electronics, in turn, are governed by their batteries. However, the traditional lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), that are widely used in electronic devices, are falling out of favor because researchers are beginning to view lithium metal batteries (LMBs) as a superior alternative due to their remarkably high energy density that exceeds LIBs by an order of magnitude! The key difference lies in the choice of anode material: LIBs use graphite, whereas LMBs use lithium metal. Such a choice, however, comes with its own challenges. Among the most prominent ones is the formation ...

Singapore, 1 June 2021 - The discovery and development of new small-molecule compounds for therapeutic use involves a huge investment of time, effort and resources. Giving a new spin to conventional chemical synthesis, a team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has developed a way to automate the production of small molecules suitable for pharmaceutical use. The method can potentially be used for molecules that are typically produced via manual processes, thereby reducing the manpower required. The research team that achieved this technological breakthrough was led by Assistant Professor Wu Jie from the NUS Department of Chemistry as well as Associate Professor Saif A. Khan from ...

Bribery in the public healthcare does not solve the problem of poor quality of services, and even exacerbates it, researchers argue. The same can be said about the well-being of patients and their own assessment of health. In other words, bribes in the healthcare do not provide good quality services and do not pay off. Such conclusions were reached by an international team of researchers, including Olga Popova, the article's co-author, an associate professor at the Ural Federal University (UrFU, Russia). Researchers examined survey data on 41,000 citizens from 28 post-communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as ...

Tokyo - Machine learning is the process by which computers adapt their responses without human intervention. This form of artificial intelligence (AI) is now common in everyday tools such as virtual assistants and is being developed for use in areas from medicine to agriculture. A challenge posed by the rapid expansion of machine learning is the high energy demand of the complex computing processes. Researchers from The University of Tokyo have reported the first integration of a mobility-enhanced field-effect transistor (FET) and a ferroelectric capacitor (FE-CAP) to bring the memory system into the proximity of a microprocessor and improve the ...

In the modern day, our interactions with voice-based devices and services continue to increase. In this light, researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology and RIKEN, Japan, have performed a meta-synthesis to understand how we perceive and interact with the voice (and the body) of various machines. Their findings have generated insights into human preferences, and can be used by engineers and designers to develop future vocal technologies. As humans, we primarily communicate vocally and aurally. We convey not just linguistic information, but also the complexities of our emotional states and personalities. Aspects of our voice such as tone, rhythm, and pitch are vital to the way we are perceived. In other words, the way we say things matters. With advances in ...

Magnetic fields are ubiquitous throughout our Milky Way Galaxy and play a crucial role in all dynamics of interstellar medium. However, questions like how Solar-type stars form out of magnetized molecular clouds, whether the role of magnetic fields changes at various scales and densities of molecular clouds, and what factors can change the morphology of magnetic fields in low-mass dense cores still remain unclear. A new study led by Dr. Eswaraiah Chakali from Prof. LI Di's research group at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) has partially answered these questions. ...

Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology develop a 3D functional interposer--the interface between a chip and the package substrate--containing an embedded capacitor. This compact design saves a lot of package area and greatly reduces the wiring length between the chip's terminals and the capacitor, allowing for less noise and power consumption. Their approach paves the way to new semiconductor package structures with greater miniaturization. Electronics started big size-wise but have only grown smaller and more compact over time. Today, even smartphones outperform the bulky computers from the 1980s by orders of magnitude. Unfortunately, ...