Earth
Premature aging in people with HIV is now recognized as a new, significant public health challenge. Accumulating evidence shows that people with HIV who are between 45 to 60 years old develop characteristics typically observed in people without HIV that are more than 70 years of age. For instance, declining gait speed, physical function and cognition, mitochondrial aging, elevated inflammation, immune dysfunction, frailty and other health conditions are significantly higher in people with HIV when compared to age- and sex-matched uninfected people.
URBANA, Ill. - Rituals such as those centered around holidays and other celebrations play an important part in human relationships. When dating couples engage in rituals together, they learn more about each other. And those experiences can serve as diagnostic tools of where the relationship is going, a University of Illinois study shows.
More than 20 million people in the U.S. suffer neuropathic pain. At least 25% of those cases are classified as unexplained and considered cryptogenic sensory polyneuropathy (CSPN). There is no information to guide a physician's drug choices to treat CSPN, but a researcher from the University of Missouri School of Medicine and MU Health Care led a first-of-its-kind prospective comparative effectiveness study.
People who have undergone obesity (bariatric) surgery live three years longer, on average, than those given conventional treatment for their obesity, a University of Gothenburg study shows. Compared with the general population, however, both groups' excess mortality is high.
The results published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) are based on the Swedish Obese Subjects (SOS) study, which started in 1987 and is led from the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg.
Nanoscale temperature measurement with high sensitivity is important to investigating many phenomena such as heat dissipation of nano-/micro-electronics, chemical reactions in nanoliter volume, thermoplasmonics of nanoparticles, and thermal processes in live systems. There have been various nanoscale thermometry schemes, including the SQUID-based nanothermometry, scanning thermal microscopy, and fluorescence thermometry based on rare-earth nanoparticles, dyes, or proteins.
On the outskirts of the nearby Andromeda Galaxy, researchers have unexpectedly discovered a globular cluster (GC) - a massive congregation of relic stars - with a very low abundance of chemical elements heavier than hydrogen and helium (known as its metallicity), according to a new study. The GC, designated RBC EXT8, has 800 times lower abundance of these elements than the Sun, below a previously-observed limit, challenging the notion that massive GCs could not have formed at such low metallicities.
In an entirely new approach to making lithium-ion batteries lighter, safer and more efficient, scientists at Stanford University and the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have reengineered one of the heaviest battery components - sheets of copper or aluminum foil known as current collectors - so they weigh 80% less and immediately quench any fires that flare up.
A team of Russian researchers with the participation of a leading researcher at HSE University, Ekaterina Pechenkova, found that during group problem solving the components of the social brain are co-activated, but they do not increase their coupling during cooperation as would be suggested for a holistic network. The study was published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2020.00290/full
The great global challenges of our time, including climate change, energy security and scarcity of natural resources, promote a transition from the linear fossil-based economy to the sustainable bio-based circular economy. Taking this step requires further development of emerging technologies for production of renewable fuels and chemicals.
Philadelphia, October 15, 2020 - Drugs of abuse, like cocaine, are so addictive due in part to their cellular interaction, creating strong cellular memories in the brain that promote compulsive behaviors. Researchers have tried to understand the formation of these memories in hopes of finding ways to disrupt them as a potential treatment for substance use disorder (SUD). A new study shows that cocaine use in mice leads to the formation of synapses by an unexpected architect: a type of cell called astrocytes.
Tropical Storm Nangka made landfall south of Haiphong, Vietnam and began to weaken. NASA's Aqua satellite revealed wind shear was affecting the storm as it continued to push inland.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Storm Nangka on Oct. 14, 2020 at 2:25 a.m. EDT (0625 UTC) that revealed after the storm made landfall it began weaken. In the imagery, strong storms continued to circle the center and were in the northern quadrant.
New UBC research is highlighting the need for improved training when it comes to helping young people living with psychosis determine their sense of identity.
"Identity development is a normal part of growing up and generally happens when someone is in their late adolescence or early adult years," explains Shelly Ben-David, assistant professor at UBC Okanagan's School of Social Work and study lead author. "It's that time in life when a young person starts asking who they are and exploring their personal goals, their own values and even their role in life."
A new study by researchers at the University of Eastern Finland provides novel insight into the previously unknown effects of factors regulating blood vessel formation. In the study, bone morphogenetic factor 6, i.e. BMP6, was shown - for the first time - to regulate blood vessel formation via vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2) and Hippo signalling pathway. The findings can be used in developing treatments for cardiovascular diseases.
The Fourier transform is an important mathematical tool that decomposes a function or dataset into a its constituting frequencies, much like one could decompose a musical chord into a combination of its notes. It is used across all fields of engineering in some form or another and, accordingly, algorithms to compute it efficiently have been developed--that is, at least for conventional computers. But what about quantum computers?
Drought usually originates from a deficiency of precipitation over an extended period of time and is identified as one of the extreme aspects of the hydrological cycle. Because of its destructive impacts on human life, agriculture, ecology, and physical systems of affected regions, there is increasing interest in understanding changes in drought under global warming and quantifying the role of human and other external influences on drought.