Culture
Evaluating body composition, especially appendicular muscle mass, can be an effective strategy for predicting longevity in people over 65 years of age, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of São Paulo’s Medical School (FM-USP) in Brazil.
The appendicular muscles are the muscles that move the appendages or extremities – the arms and legs. They also play a key role in stabilizing the shoulders and hips.
INDIANAPOLIS -- Researchers have discovered a previously unknown mechanism that causes increased forest water use, advances understanding of soil biogeochemical control of forest water cycles and highlights threats to plants from water stress under acid deposition, according to a new study.
HARWELL, UK (July 29, 2019)--All-solid-state batteries, a battery design composed of all solid components, have gained attention as the next major advance beyond lithium ion batteries because of their potential to store more energy while being safer to operate. When capable of being produced in commercial quantities, solid-state batteries would revolutionise electric vehicles (EVs) effectively increasing driveable range or significantly decreasing volume and weight.
Researchers at the Toyohashi University of Technology have successfully fabricated a binder-less tin phosphide (Sn4P3)/carbon (C) composite film electrode for lithium-ion batteries via aerosol deposition. The Sn4P3/C particles were directly solidified on a metal substrate via impact consolidation, without applying a binder. Charging and discharging cycling stabilities were improved by both complexed carbon and controlled electrical potential window for lithium extraction. This finding could help realize advanced lithium-ion batteries of higher capacity.
Bottom Line: A population-based study using data from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan suggests hearing loss is associated with risk of dementia. The study included 8,135 patients with newly diagnosed hearing loss and an equal number of individuals without hearing loss for comparison. Among the 16,270 study participants, 1,868 developed dementia. Patients with hearing loss had a higher risk of dementia, especially those 45 to 64 years old. Six coexisting conditions also were associated with dementia risk in the present study.
HOUSTON - (July 31, 2019) - In the surgical setting, the concept "to err is human" could potentially be a matter of life and death. In an effort to identify surgical errors that could be prevented, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine conducted a comprehensive analysis of surgeries that resulted in adverse events over a six-month period and found that more than half were caused by human performance deficiencies. Their report appears today in the journal JAMA Network Open.
What The Study Did: Data from two long-term study groups including nearly 125,000 health professionals in the U.S. were used to evaluate the association between intake of vitamin A, through diet and supplementation, and risk of cutaneous squamous cell cancer during a follow-up period of more than 26 years.
Authors: Eunyoung Cho, Sc.D., of Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, is the corresponding author
(doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2019.1937)
Researchers at Siberian Federal University, together with colleagues from the Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden), discovered new properties of material based on palladium, which can increase the performance of solar cells.
Patients who suffer from tinnitus, a perceived noise or ringing in the ears, and hyperacusis, extreme sensitivity to noise, could be at heightened risk for thoughts of suicide and self-harm because of their childhood history of parental mental illness.
A new study, published in the American Journal of Audiology, is the first to examine the relationship between parental mental illness such as anxiety, depression and anger in childhood and the risk of suicidal and self-harm ideations in adults who suffer from these debilitating hearing disorders.
Tsukuba, Japan - Rheumatoid arthritis is a progressive autoimmune disease most frequently characterized by pain, swelling, and stiffness in joints. Increased numbers of follicular helper T cells have been observed in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, but the functions of these cells have been unclear.
Comparing a living cell to a virus is a bit like comparing the Sistine Chapel to a backyard dog house. Lacking the intricate machinery of living cells, viruses represent biology stripped down to an extreme level. They are the true minimalists of the biological world.
Japan -- As the largest organ of the human body our skin is astounding. It protects us from infection, endures radiation, senses temperature, and is flexible enough to withstand our everyday activities. What holds this all together is the protein we all know and love: collagen.
In a paper published in Scientific Reports a team from Japan found for the first time that collagen in the skin is organized in a mesh-like structure, and that elastic fibers -- the connective tissue found in skin -- follows the same orientation.
The brains of people with excellent general knowledge are particularly efficiently wired. This was shown by neuroscientists at Ruhr-Universität Bochum and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin using magnetic resonance imaging. "Although we can precisely measure the general knowledge of people and this wealth of knowledge is very important for an individual's journey through life, we currently know little about the links between general knowledge and the characteristics of the brain," says Dr. Erhan Genç from the Department of Biopsychology in Bochum.
The rise in temperature and precipitation levels in summer in northern Japan has negatively affected the growth of conifers and resulted in their gradual decline, according to a 38-year-long study in which mixed forests of conifers and broad-leaved trees were monitored by a team of researchers from Hokkaido University.
The findings demonstrate how climate change has changed the forests' demography and caused a directional change in the region, from being sub-boreal conifer-dominated to cool-temperate broad-leaved tree dominated.
Researchers at the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocesses Technology (QIBEBT) in China have made headway toward more sustainable and economic fuel production by developing a biochemical approach to allow more control over the conversion of natural gas into potable liquid fuel.
The study appeared on July 15 in ACS Catalysis, a journal published by the American Chemical Society.