A team of researchers at Nagoya University in Japan has discovered that aldehydes are metabolic byproducts associated with premature aging. Published in Nature Cell Biology, their findings reveal insights into premature aging diseases and potential strategies to combat aging in healthy individuals such as controlling exposure to aldehyde-inducing substances including alcohol, pollution, and smoke.  A person's health can be harmed by aldehydes. However, the group’s findings suggest these detrimental effects also include aging. The team who made this discovery included Yasuyoshi Oka, Yuka Nakazawa, Mayuko Shimada, and Tomoo Ogi of Nagoya University.  “DNA ...

Chasing ever-higher qubit counts in near-term quantum computers constantly demands new feats of engineering. Among the troublesome hurdles of this scaling-up race is refining how qubits are measured. Devices called parametric amplifiers are traditionally used to do these measurements. But as the name suggests, the device amplifies weak signals picked up from the qubits to conduct the readout, which causes unwanted noise and can lead to decoherence of the qubits if not protected by additional large components. More importantly, the bulky size of the amplification chain becomes technically challenging to work around as qubit counts increase ...

Research has uncovered important new insights into the evolution of oxygen, carbon, and other vital elements over the entire history of Earth – and it could help assess which other planets can develop life, ranging from plants to animals and humans. The study, published today in Nature Geoscience and led by a researcher at the University of Bristol, reveals for the first time how the build up of carbon-rich rocks has accelerated oxygen production and its release into the atmosphere. Until now the exact nature of how the atmosphere became oxygen-rich has long eluded scientists and generated conflicting explanations. As carbon dioxide is steadily ...

Tokyo, Japan – The idea of growing a functioning human brain-like tissues in a dish has always sounded pretty far-fetched, even to researchers in the field. Towards the future goal, a Japanese and French research team has developed a technique for connecting lab-grown brain-mimicking tissue in a way that resembles circuits in our brain. It is challenging to study exact mechanisms of the brain development and functions. Animal studies are limited by differences between species in brain structure and function, and brain cells grown in the lab tend to lack the characteristic ...

Researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, have developed a digital display screen where the LEDs themselves react to touch, light, fingerprints and the user’s pulse, among other things. Their results, published in Nature Electronics, could be the start of a whole new generation of displays for phones, computers and tablets.  “We’ve now shown that our design principle works. Our results show that there is great potential for a new generation of digital displays where new advanced ...

PHILADELPHIA — (April 10, 2024) — The Wistar Institute’s associate professor Mohamed Abdel-Mohsen, Ph.D., along with his team and collaborators, has identified sugar abnormalities in the blood that may promote biological aging and inflammation in people living with HIV (PLWH). The findings, taken from a large data study comprising more than 1200 participants, are detailed in the new paper, “Immunoglobulin G N-glycan Markers of Accelerated Biological Aging During Chronic HIV Infection,” published in the journal Nature Communications. Despite advances ...

A new study published in the Lancet discovery science  journal eClinicalMedicine has confirmed that a novel natural supplement—invented, researched, developed and commercialized at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)—prevents postpartum blues, and reduces symptoms of postpartum depression over the following six months after giving birth. Up to 8 out of ten new mothers experience postpartum, or ‘baby,’ blues, characterized by mood swings, crying spells, anxiety and difficulty sleeping. The condition usually begins within the first few days after delivery and may last for up to two weeks. Postpartum ...

Embargoed until 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, 10 April, 2024 Central European Summer Time (GMT +2) 10 April, 2024, Prague, Czech Republic—The same technology that enables a bullet train to travel at speeds up to 200 mph without touching its rails now keeps a failing heart pumping—and in the near future, it will do so via a wireless power connection. Mandeep R. Mehra, MD, FRCP described the cutting-edge heart pump and other advances in mechanical circulatory support (MCS) today at the Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) in ...

Embargoed until 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, 10 April, 2024 Central European Summer Time (GMT +2) 10 April 2024, Prague, Czech Republic—Artificial intelligence will significantly impact the heart transplantation process by helping physicians better assess the complex factors impacting patient outcomes, according to researchers at today’s Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) in Prague.   “Until now, we’ve assessed the likelihood of transplant success based on individual risk factors,” said Eileen Hsich, medical director of the Heart Transplant Program at the Cleveland ...

Sunlight has a major influence on chemical processes. Its high-energy UV radiation in particular is strongly absorbed by all materials and triggers photochemical reactions of the substances present in the air. A well-known example is the formation of ground-level ozone when UV light hits nitrogen oxides. A research team led by Birgitta Schultze-Bernhardt from the Institute of Experimental Physics at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) is now utilising this high reaction potential for a new method of environmental monitoring. ...

Embargoed until 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, 10 April, 2024, Central European Summer Time  10 April, 2024, Prague, Czech Republic—Amid the persistent threat of missiles from the air and an array of hazardous terrestrial obstacles, the Heart Institute of the Ministry of Health in Kyiv has continued to provide heart transplants to Ukraine’s citizens, performing 40 of the life-saving procedures since Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in 2022. The Heart Institute’s Director Borys Todurov, MD, PhD, reported on his team’s extraordinary efforts today at the Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation ...

Investigators have applied artificial intelligence techniques to gait analyses and medical records data to provide insights about individuals with leg fractures and aspects of their recovery. The study, which is published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research, uncovered a significant association between the rates of hospital readmission after fracture surgery and the presence of underlying medical conditions. Correlations were also found between underlying medical conditions and orthopedic complications, although these links were not significant. It was also ...

Previous studies have questioned whether gut microbe imbalances and vitamin D deficiency may be linked to schizophrenia. New research published in Neuropsychopharmacology Reports now indicates that taking probiotics plus vitamin D supplements may improve cognitive function in individuals with the disease. For the study, 70 adults with schizophrenia were randomized to take a placebo or probiotic supplements plus 400 IU vitamin D daily for 12 weeks. Severity of the disease and cognitive function were evaluated by tests called the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the 30-point Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), respectively. A total of 69 patients completed the study. The MoCA ...

Chronic infection with the hepatitis B virus (HBV) causes progressive liver problems, and eradication of the virus remains a formidable challenge. New research in FEBS Letters indicates that treatment that boosts the effects of immune cells called stem cell memory T cells (TSCMs) may be a promising strategy for combating HBV. In the study, investigators identified TSCMs in patients with chronic HBV infection and analyzed their effects in a mouse model of HBV. After introducing TSCMs from patients ...

CLEVELAND, Ohio (April 10, 2024)—After the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) in 2002, many women have resisted taking hormone therapy (HT), especially after age 65 years, because of fears of increased risks for various cancers and heart disease. A new study shows that those fears may be unfounded, depending on the type, route, and dose of HT. Results of the study are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The Menopause Society. Despite the conflicting results of a follow-up WHI study in 2004 and dozens of other studies since that time, a percentage of healthcare professionals and their middle-aged female patients continue to believe that ...

Adolescence is an important period of life for healthy growth. Malnutrition during this seminal period may have long-term adverse effects on health and development. In sub-Saharan Africa, there is a lack of nutrition programming for adolescents. Adolescent malnutrition represents an urgent issue in sub-Saharan Africa, which has a long history of undernutrition and a rising issue of overweight and obesity.  Findings from a new study suggest that a four-component school-based nutritional intervention package improved ...

Compared with Cd-based QDs, InP-based QDs have lower photoluminescence quantum yields (PL QYs) and broader full-width at half-maximum (FWHM). In particular, bare InP core has extremely low PL QY (＜1%) due to the ease of oxidation of their highly reactive surface even in insert reaction chambers. It has been reported that the defects from oxidative species are probably the reasons for the non-radiative recombination and poor PL QY of these materials. Over the last decade, extensive studies have been conducted to improve the optoelectronic properties of InP-based QDs for display and lighting applications, ...

Undertaking the majority of daily physical activity in the evening is linked to the greatest health benefits for people living with obesity, according to researchers from the University of Sydney, Australia who followed the trajectory of 30,000 people over almost 8 years. Using wearable device data to categorise participant’s physical activity by morning, afternoon or evening, the researchers uncovered that those who did the majority of their aerobic moderate to vigorous physical activity– the kind that raises our heartrate and gets us out of breath– between 6pm and midnight had the lowest risk of premature ...

Against the backdrop of global challenges such as climate change, diminishing natural resources, and the need to feed a growing population, the imperative for fostering worldwide agricultural sustainability has reached unprecedented levels. China’s Agricultural Green Development (AGD) serves as an important model for global sustainable agricultural development. What advantages does this model offer in terms of concept and implementation path compared to other international sustainable agriculture initiatives? What ...

Parents and youth sport coaches need to have positive relationships to foster positive sporting experiences and enable young people to reach their sporting potential – but there’s currently no clear direction about the best way for them to come together.   Flinders University researchers examining youth sport say that developing better coach-parent relationships that create an environment conducive to positive youth sport experiences and outcomes will require a fresh approach and a more interactive perspective.  Improving interactions and communication between parents and coaches needs ...

Engineered bacteria can produce a plastic modifier that makes renewably sourced plastic more processable, more fracture resistant and highly biodegradable even in sea water. The Kobe University development provides a platform for the industrial-scale, tunable production of a material that holds great potential for turning the plastic industry green. Plastic is a hallmark of our civilization. It is a family of highly formable (hence the name), versatile and durable materials, most of which are also persistent in nature and therefore a significant source of pollution. Moreover, many plastics are produced from crude oil, a non-renewable resource. Engineers and researchers ...

Swapping red meat for ‘forage fish’, such as herring, sardines, and anchovies, could save up to 750,000 lives a year in 2050 and significantly reduce the prevalence of disability as a result of diet-related disease, suggests a data analysis published in the open access journal BMJ Global Health.    Adopting this type of diet would be especially helpful for low and middle income countries, where these fish are cheap and plentiful, and where the toll taken by heart disease, in particular, is high, say the researchers. Mounting ...

Experiencing the sort of job insecurity in early adulthood that is often linked to the gig economy, is linked to a heightened risk of a serious alcohol-related illness in later life, suggest the findings of a long term study published online in Occupational & Environmental Medicine.   And men who find themselves in this position as young adults seem to be more at risk than young women, the findings indicate.  The prevalence of ‘precarious employment’, which describes non-standard or temporary work that is often poorly paid, insecure, and unprotected, has increased in recent years, explain the researchers. ...

Xylazine, a powerful animal tranquiliser linked to horrific side effects, is now widespread in the UK illicit drug market. In most cases xylazine is mixed with strong opioids, such as heroin or fentanyl, which is a common combination in the United States. However, xylazine was also detected in the absence of strong opioids alongside stimulant drugs such as cocaine, and found in items sold as counterfeit codeine and diazepam (Valium) tablets and even THC vapes. Researchers warn the wider population of people who use drugs beyond heroin users will ...

Drugs known as GLP-1 analogues have become increasingly popular to treat diabetes and obesity, but there have been concerns that they might increase the risk of thyroid cancer. Now an extensive Scandinavian study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet has found no evidence of such a link. The study is published in The BMJ. GLP-1 receptor agonists, also known as GLP-1 analogues, reduce blood sugar levels and appetite. They are widely used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity, with their clinical use steadily increasing. Earlier studies and adverse event data have suggested that these drugs could be associated with an increased risk of thyroid ...