How do pathogens invade the lungs? Using human lung microtissues, a team at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel has uncovered the strategy used by a dangerous pathogen. The bacterium targets specific lung cells and has developed a sophisticated strategy to break through the lungs’ line of defense. Earlier this year, the WHO published a list of twelve of the world’s most dangerous bacterial pathogens that are resistant to multiple antibiotics and pose a grave threat to human health. This list includes Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a much-feared nosocomial pathogen ...

Around two million years ago, Earth was a very different place, with our early human ancestors living alongside saber-toothed tigers, mastodons, and enormous rodents. And, depending on where they were, they may have been cold: Earth had fallen into a deep freeze, with multiple ice ages coming and going until about 12,000 years ago. Scientists theorize that ice ages occur for a number of reasons, including the planet’s tilt and rotation, shifting plate tectonics, volcanic eruptions, and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. ...

Lasers have revolutionized the world since the 60’s and are now indispensable in modern applications, from cutting-edge surgery and precise manufacturing to data transmission across optical fibers. But as the need for laser-based applications grows, so do challenges. For example, there is a growing market for fiber lasers, which are currently used in industrial cutting, welding, and marking applications. Fiber lasers use an optical fiber doped with rare-earth elements (erbium, ytterbium, neodymium etc) as their optical gain source (the part that produces the laser’s light). They emit high-quality beams, they have high power output, and they are efficient, ...

ROCKVILLE, Md.— New research reveals that moderate to vigorous physical activity in the evening for sedentary adults with overweight and obesity is most beneficial in lowering daily blood sugar levels, according to a study published in Obesity, The Obesity Society’s (TOS) flagship journal. Experts explain that it has been well established that moderate to vigorous physical activity enhances glucose homeostasis in adults with overweight and obesity who are at higher risk of developing insulin resistance. ...

ROCKVILLE, Md.— Individuals treated with anti-obesity medications generally experience reduced appetite, which typically leads to reduced food intake. As a result, dietary quality becomes more important because nutritional needs must be met within the context of eating less. To improve this process, medical experts have developed a list of evidence-based nutritional recommendations to assist clinicians treating patients with anti-obesity medications, according to a review published in the journal Obesity, The Obesity Society’s (TOS) flagship journal. “Our evidence-based review aims to equip clinicians with knowledge ...

Boys are good at math, girls not so much? A study from the University of Zurich has analyzed the social mechanisms that contribute to the gender gap in math confidence. While peer comparisons seem to play a crucial role for boys, girls’ subjective evaluations are more likely to be based on objective performance. Research has shown that in Western societies, the average secondary school girl has less confidence in her mathematical abilities than the average boy of the same age. At the same time, no significant difference ...

Carbon capture and utilization technologies for the conversion of carbon dioxide into carboxylic acids have garnered attention recently, with researchers from Tokyo Tech recently demonstrating a biocatalyzed carboxylation reaction of not only natural substrate, pyruvate, but also unnatural one, 2-ketoglutarate, using Thermoplasma acidophilum NADP+- malic enzyme under mild reaction conditions. The proposed strategy can be tailored for the selective synthesis through carbon dioxide fixation reactions. Removing the excess carbon dioxide (CO2) from the environment is not the end goal of the decarbonization process necessary to ...

Among US veterans diagnosed with lung cancer through the Veterans Health Administration healthcare system, those who underwent screening before diagnosis were more likely to be diagnosed with earlier stage disease and had a higher cure rate than those who had not been screened. The findings come from an observational study published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, and most patients are diagnosed at ...

Peer-reviewed – Observational study - People  Adolescents who experience higher levels of social anxiety symptoms are more likely to report increased suicidal thoughts and other depressive symptoms two years later, according to new research.  The University of East Anglia-led study sheds light on the pressing need for early interventions to address society anxiety in young people.  Lead author Dr Kenny Chiu, Clinical Lecturer in Clinical Psychology at UEA’s Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychological Therapies, said: “Social Anxiety Disorder ...

Abnormal blood flow in the aorta is linked to inflammation and breakdown of the vessel wall in conditions where the aorta is dilated. This is shown in a study led by researchers at Linköping University. The findings can contribute to better diagnosis and open up new ways to assess the risk of serious and usually fatal complications, such as rupture of the aorta.  All blood in the body passes through the heart about once a minute. With every heartbeat, blood from the heart is pumped up into the aorta. Dilation can occur in all parts ...

Health services should teach patients with eating disorders psychosocial skills to help more people recover and avoid relapse, according to an expert. Anorexia, bulimia and other eating issues affect millions of people, and eating disorder specialist Bethany Crowley warns that eating disorders are often misunderstood. She suggests a more integrated approach to treating people is needed, to focus on the whole person rather than just the disordered eating. Quieting negative thoughts, learning to cope with emotional triggers and practicing self-compassion are among nine key skills outlined by the therapist in a new book. An Integrative Approach to Treating Eating ...

Background Fusion energy is that released when two light nuclei combine to form a single heavier one (nuclear fusion reaction). Fusion energy-based power generation (fusion power plant) uses the energy generated when deuterium and tritium combine to form helium. A nuclear fusion reaction does not produce carbon dioxide. In addition, since it is possible to extract deuterium and tritium from the sea water, fusion energy is regarded as a sustainable energy source, and research into its practical application has been progressing rapidly ...

A glowing marker dye that sticks to prostate cancer cells could help surgeons to remove them in real-time, according to a study funded by Cancer Research UK.   Cancer Research UK-funded scientists, based at the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences and the Department of Oncology, University of Oxford, Oxford University Hospitals and Oxford NIHR Biomedical Research Centre used a fluorescent dye attached to a special marker molecule to give medics a “second pair of eyes” during surgery for prostate cancer. Twenty-three men with prostate cancer were injected with the marker dye before undergoing prostate removal surgery. The marker dye found areas of cancerous tissue ...

ALS patients received better care if they were treated by a neurologist, a new study published in PLOS One has found. But researchers found that Black, older and socially disadvantaged ALS patients were less likely to see a neurologist, raising concerns about equity in treating the deadly disease. Patients who were treated by neurologists were more likely to receive interventions endorsed by the American Academy of Neurology. “This study highlights the importance of neurologist care for ALS patients and the need to overcome barriers and provide care that is more equitable for ALS patients,” ...

College Park, Md. – Most people use Google Street View to find their way. Dr. Quynh Nguyen, an epidemiologist and statistician at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, uses it to locate spots where your journey might abruptly end. In a study published June 6 in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) of Injury Prevention, Nguyen identifies uses AI tools to identify key environmental elements impacting car-related collisions as well as cyclist-related and pedestrian-related accidents. “Car crashes are the leading cause of death for young people ...

Researchers at the University of Michigan are finding that many patients may be encountering significant barriers to cancer care, even from their first phone call to a clinic.  Patients attempting to access cancer care must go through several different levels of communication, both before their initial appointment with a physician and throughout their treatment.  Making those first calls to learn more about available cancer care services or to schedule an appointment at a clinic is an important step toward beginning their treatment journey.   “Racial and ethnic disparities have been observed in the outpatient visit rates for ...

As the electric vehicle market booms, the demand for lithium — the mineral required for lithium-ion batteries — has also soared. Global lithium production has more than tripled in the last decade. But current methods of extracting lithium from rock ores or brines are slow and come with high energy demands and environmental costs. They also require sources of lithium which are incredibly concentrated to begin with and are only found in a few countries. Now, researchers at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) have optimized a new method for extracting lithium from more dilute — and widespread — sources of the mineral, including seawater, ...

On Feb. 22, a lunar lander named Odysseus touched down near the Moon’s South Pole and popped out four antennas to record radio waves around the surface—a moment University of Colorado Boulder astrophysicist Jack Burns hails as the “dawn of radio astronomy from the Moon.” It was a major achievement for the tenacious lander, which was built by the Houston-based company Intuitive Machines and had to overcome a series of technical difficulties to make it to the lunar surface. Burns is co-investigator on the radio experiment that flew aboard Odysseus called Radio wave Observations at the Lunar Surface ...

“[...] the identification of ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes like UBE2J1 and the innovative deployment of PROTAC-type androgen receptor degraders are crucial in combating prostate cancer and overcoming therapeutic resistance.” BUFFALO, NY- June 7, 2024 – A new editorial paper was published in Oncoscience (Volume 11) on May 6, 2024, entitled, “Restoring our ubiquitination machinery to overcome resistance in cancer therapy.” In this new editorial, researchers Xiaoling Li and Ping Mu from ...

The United States has enough biomass potential to produce 35 billion gallons per year of aviation biofuel by 2050, a new report confirms. Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s John Field provided biomass feedstock production expertise to the report focused on the role of the bioeconomy in U.S. decarbonization strategies, which was produced by the Department of Energy’s DECARB program. The report examined the role of biomass in reducing greenhouse gas emissions across the economy, including opportunities to reach negative emissions. It includes data ...

About The Study: The results of this randomized clinical trial showed that a 15-day course of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir in a population of patients with postacute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC) was generally safe but did not demonstrate a significant benefit for improving select PASC symptoms in a mostly vaccinated cohort with protracted symptom duration. Further studies are needed to determine the role of antivirals in the treatment of PASC.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding authors, email Linda N. Geng, M.D., Ph.D. (geng@stanford.edu) and Upinder Singh, M.D. (usingh@stanford.edu). To ...

In a clinical trial conducted by Stanford Medicine investigators and their colleagues, a 15-day course of Paxlovid — an antiviral drug combination targeting SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 — proved safe as an extended-duration treatment but didn’t lessen select symptoms of the syndrome known as long COVID: the persistence, or reappearance, of COVID-related symptoms three months or more after an initial COVID-19 infection. The findings are described in a paper to be published ...

Northwestern University researchers have developed a new antioxidant biomaterial that someday could provide much-needed relief to people living with chronic pancreatitis. The study will be published on June 7 in the journal Science Advances. Before surgeons remove the pancreas from patients with severe, painful chronic pancreatitis, they first harvest insulin-producing tissue clusters, called islets, and transplant them into the vasculature of the liver. The goal of the transplant is to preserve a patient’s ability to control their own blood-glucose levels without insulin injections. Unfortunately, the ...

Ancient apes in Germany co-existed by partitioning resources in their environment, according to a study published June 7, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Madelaine Böhme of Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Germany and David R. Begun, of University of Toronto, Canada and colleagues. The Hammerschmiede fossil site in Bavaria, Germany is best known for exceptional remains of the ancient great ape Danuvius dating to the late Miocene Epoch, 11.6 million years ago. Other experts contest the strength of the evidence to support whether Danuvius is a hominid or whether ...

Off the coasts of southern British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and northern California lies a 600 mile-long strip where the Pacific Ocean floor is slowly diving eastward under North America. This area, called the Cascadia Subduction Zone, hosts a megathrust fault, a place where tectonic plates move against each other in a highly dangerous way. The plates can periodically lock up and build stress over wide areas―eventually to be released when they finally lurch against each other. The result: the world’s greatest earthquakes, shaking both seabed and land, and generating tsunamis 100 feet high or more. Such a fault ...