Brain

Phase 1/2 clinical trial of CoronaVac in 550 children and adolescents aged 3-17 years in China suggests two doses of the vaccine are safe and generate a strong antibody response.

First published data on safety and immune response generated by a COVID-19 vaccine in children as young as 3-years-old supports use of CoronaVac - which was recently approved for emergency use in China among children over 3-years-old - in further studies to inform immunisation strategies.

Two doses of CoronaVac are safe and provoke a strong antibody response among children and adolescents aged 3-17 years, according to a randomised controlled trial of 550 young people published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.

More than 96% of children and adolescents who received two doses of the vaccine - manufactured by Sinovac - developed antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. Most adverse reactions were mild or moderate, with pain at the injection site the most commonly reported symptom.

Qiang Gao, of Sinovac Life Sciences Co, Ltd, China, said: "Children and adolescents with COVID-19 usually have mild or asymptomatic infections compared with adults; however, a small number may still be at risk of severe illness. They can also transmit the virus to others, making it vital to test the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in younger age groups. Our finding that CoronaVac was well tolerated and induced strong immune responses is very encouraging, and suggests that further studies in other regions, involving larger, multi-ethnic populations, could provide valuable data to inform immunisation strategies involving children and adolescents." [2]

The authors conducted a randomised, double-blind, controlled phase 1/2 clinical trial of CoronaVac in healthy children and adolescents aged 3-17 years in Zanhuang County, China. Between October 31 and December 2, 2020, 72 participants were enrolled in phase 1, with 480 participants enrolled in phase 2 between December 12 and December 30, 2020. The vaccine (either 1.5μg or 3μg per dose) or a control was given by intramuscular injection in two doses, at day 0 and day 28. In studies involving adults aged 18-59 years and people aged 60 years and older, participants received two doses of 1.5μg, 3μg, or 6μg, with 3μg doses suggested for use in further research. [1]

Among the 550 participants who received at least one dose of vaccine or the control, adverse reactions within 28 days occurred in 56 (26%) of 219 participants in the 1.5μg group, 63 (29%) of 217 in the 3μg group, and 27 (24%) of 114 in the control group. Most adverse reactions were mild or moderate, with pain at the injection site (13%, 73/550 participants) the most commonly reported symptom. Only one serious adverse reaction - a case of pneumonia - was reported in the control group; however, this was unrelated to the COVID-19 vaccination.

In phase 1, 100% of participants in both the 1.5μg and 3μg groups (27/27 and 26/26 participants, respectively) generated antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. Stronger immune responses - determined by the amount of antibodies produced that can neutralise the virus, expressed as geometric mean titre (GMT) - were detected among the 3μg group compared with the 1.5μg group (GMTs of 117 and 55, respectively). In phase 2, 97% (180/186) of participants in the 1.5μg group produced antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, compared with 100% (180/180 participants) in the 3μg group. Participants in the 3μg group again produced a stronger immune response that those in the 1.5μg group (GMTs of 142 and 86, respectively). Similar to findings for other vaccines that increasing age is linked with reduced immune responses, the authors note that immune responses among children and adolescents were higher than those in adults aged 18-59 years and elderly aged 60 years and older (GMTs of 44 and 42, respectively). [1]

No significant differences in immune response were detected in an analysis by age group, with more than 93% of those in the 1.5μg and 3μg groups aged 3-5 years, 6-11 years, and 12-17 years producing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 (with GMTs ranging from 78 to 146) at day 28 after the second dose. In each age group, there were significant differences in GMTs between the 1·5 μg and
3·0 μg groups after the second dose, except in the group aged 12-17 years old in phase 1.

Based on their results, the authors recommend two 3μg doses of the vaccine for children and adolescents aged 3-17 years.

The authors acknowledge some limitations to their study. T cell responses - which play an important role in SARS-CoV-2 infections - were not assessed in the study, though these have been investigated in related studies. The study involved a small number of participants and all were of Han ethnicity, highlighting a need for larger studies in other regions and involving multi-ethnic populations. Long-term safety and immune response data were not available, though participants will be followed for at least 1 year. Owing to the small number of participants in the study, the results should be interpreted with caution as it was not possible to draw strong statistical conclusions.

Writing in a linked Comment, Professor Bin Cao, of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, China, highlights the need to include children in immunisation campaigns, explaining: "Herd immunity against COVID-19 is the prerequisite to end this pandemic, either through vaccinations or natural infection. Most estimates placed the threshold at 65-70% of the population gaining immunity, mainly by vaccination. However, widely circulating virus variants and persistent hesitancy on vaccine make this threshold difficult to reach. (...) Thus, the calculation has to be revised upward and children must be covered in the immunisation campaign."

In calling for longer follow-up assessments in children, Professor Cao also emphasises the vital importance of determining the safety of vaccines in younger age groups, saying: "While vaccinating children is essential to reach herd immunity and limit the severity of COVID-19, safety should be the paramount factor to be considered before COVID-19 vaccines can be rolled out in younger children."

WHO Frank A. J. L. Scheer, PhD, MSc, Neuroscientist and Marta Garaulet, PhD, Visiting Scientist, both of the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Departments of Medicine and Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital. Drs. Scheer and Garaulet are co-corresponding authors of a new paper published in The FASEB Journal.

WHAT Eating milk chocolate every day may sound like a recipe for weight gain, but a new study of postmenopausal women has found that eating a concentrated amount of chocolate during a narrow window of time in the morning may help the body burn fat and decrease blood sugar levels.

To find out about the effects of eating milk chocolate at different times of day, researchers from the Brigham collaborated with investigators at the University of Murcia in Spain. Together, they conducted a randomized, controlled, cross-over trial of 19 postmenopausal women who consumed either 100g of chocolate in the morning (within one hour after waking time) or at night (within one hour before bedtime). They compared weight gain and many other measures to no chocolate intake.

Researchers report that among the women studied:

Morning or nighttime chocolate intake did not lead to weight gain;

Eating chocolate in the morning or in the evening can influence hunger and appetite, microbiota composition, sleep and more;

A high intake of chocolate during the morning hours could help to burn fat and reduce blood glucose levels.

Evening/night chocolate altered next-morning resting and exercise metabolism.

"Our findings highlight that not only 'what' but also 'when' we eat can impact physiological mechanisms involved in the regulation of body weight," said Scheer.

"Our volunteers did not gain weight despite increasing caloric intake. Our results show that chocolate reduced ad libitum energy intake, consistent with the observed reduction in hunger, appetite and the desire for sweets shown in previous studies," said Garaulet.

In many situations, heart muscle cells do not respond to external stresses in the same ways that skeletal muscle cells do. But under some conditions, heart and skeletal muscles can both waste away at fatally rapid rates, according to a new study led by experts at Cincinnati Children's.

The new findings, based on studies of mouse models, represent an important milestone in a long effort to prevent or even reverse cardiac atrophy, which can lead to fatal heart failure when the body loses large amounts of weight or experiences extended periods of weightlessness in space. Detailed findings were published online June 24, 2021, in Nature Communications.

"NASA is very interested in cardiac atrophy," says Jeffery Molkentin, PhD, Co-Director of the Heart Institute at Cincinnati Children's. "It might be the single biggest issue for long-period space flights and astronaut health, especially when re-entering a higher-gravity situation, whether that's arriving at Mars or returning to Earth."

Astronauts and cosmonauts have been exercising in orbit to minimize loss of muscle mass ever since doctors observed years ago that returning spacefarers have often been barely able to walk upon returning to Earth. Along the way, clinicians also have observed increased risk of heart trouble during the recovery period.

The new findings from Molkentin and colleagues help explain why the heart also is affected by muscle-wasting conditions, which in turn suggests potential new ways to prevent or treat the problem.

A three-pronged attack on heart cells

The research team studied mouse models in several ways to trace the withering of heart cells to a three-step molecular process.

Like skeletal muscle, the heart can either grow larger or smaller depending on workload. The new research identifies a process whereby the gene thrombospondin-1 can result in a dramatic loss of heart mass.

The overexpression of thrombospondin-1 in the hearts of mice lead to rapid and lethal loss of heart mass, called atrophy, by directly activating the signaling protein called PERK. Excessive PERK activity, in turn, triggers a response from the transcription factor ATF4, which together directly program the atrophy of heart muscle cells.

The longer these genes are active, the more severe the atrophy becomes. Eliminating or reducing the activity of these genes would block or reduce the atrophy response, which could be an attractive new strategy for addressing loss of heart muscle during extended periods of space travel.

"Our findings describe a new pathway of muscle mass loss," Molkentin says. "More research is needed to develop methods or drugs that can interrupt this signaling pathway through these genes to stop cardiac atrophy once detected."

Next steps

Researchers still need to confirm that the process observed in mice also occurs in people. More work also is needed to determine whether drugs exist (or need to be developed) that can safely manage the molecular activity the research team has identified.

In humans, even though we lack the ability to replace lost heart muscle tissue, it should be possible to rehabilitate weakened or atrophied heart muscle cells back to their original state.

Philadelphia, June 24, 2021 - Women with depression and other mood disorders are generally advised to continue taking antidepressant medications during pregnancy. The drugs are widely considered safe, but the effect of these medications on the unborn fetus has remained a topic of some concern. Now, researchers have found that maternal psychiatric conditions - but not the use of serotonin-selective reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) - increased the risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developmental delay (DD) in offspring.

The study appears in Biological Psychiatry, published by Elsevier.

Previous studies had found links between SSRI use and ASD in offspring, and ASD is associated with disrupted serotonergic pathways. But the question of whether medication or underlying conditions are responsible remained muddy.

Jennifer Ames, PhD, from Kaiser Permanente and lead author of the new study, said, "Our latest findings are good news for women managing psychiatric conditions such as depression and anxiety while pregnant and are consistent with a growing body of research that's trying to better disentangle the separate relationships of the mother's SSRI treatment and psychiatric indications during pregnancy with child neurodevelopment."

Dr. Ames and colleagues used data from the Study to Explore Early Development (SEED), which collected information about the development of thousands of children born across the US between 2003 and 2011. The current analysis of SEED data included three groups of children: those with ASD (1,367 children); with DD (1,750 children); or healthy population controls (1,671 children). Mothers were determined to have psychiatric disorders and to have taken SSRIs during pregnancy based on self-report and on medical records. About a third of mothers in the study had a psychiatric condition before or during pregnancy, and about a quarter of those took SSRIs or other antidepressants.

The findings indicated that the risk of ASD or DD was roughly doubled for children of mothers with a psychiatric disorder compared to those without. But importantly, the use of SSRIs was not associated with increased risk.

John Krystal, MD, Editor of Biological Psychiatry, said of the work, "Parents have been concerned about the risks posed to infants when mothers take antidepressant medications. It is a big relief to see that maternal antidepressant consumption does not increase the risk for autism spectrum disorder or other neurodevelopmental disorders. However, this study does confirm that maternal psychiatric disorders are associated with increased risk for autism spectrum disorder in offspring."

"Our study has some unique strengths such as including a large and demographically diverse group of mothers and children in the United States, an analysis of specific subgroups of children with autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disorders, and an examination of multiple types of psychiatric conditions in the mothers," added Dr. Ames.

The findings should provide some peace of mind for the estimated 6% of pregnant women in the US taking SSRIs.

Scientists of Tomsk Polytechnic University jointly with colleagues from Spanish universities have offered a simple method how to enhance the responsivity of terahertz radiation detectors by 3.5 folds using a small Teflon cube. The 1 mm cube must be put on the surface of the detector without changing the inner design of the detector.

Such detectors are applied, for instance, in a full-body scanner, spectrometer, in medical devices for diagnosing skin cancer, burn injuries, pathological changes in blood. The research findings are published in the Optics Letters academic journal (IF: 3,714; Q1).

Terahertz range lies between microwave and infrared ranges in the electromagnetic spectrum. Waves shorter than 1 mm refer to the terahertz range. Their feature lies in that they are capable to percolate various materials and at the same time, they do not lead to atomic ionization of matter alternatively to X-rays.

"Terahertz radiation detectors are, as a rule, rather compact devices. Nowadays, researchers from different countries are interested in the enhancement of their responsivity and other parameters. The higher responsivity, the weaker signals can be received and more precise measurements can be carried out. Most researchers are trying to solve this problem by changing the design of the detector and the materials it is made from. It is complicated and often very expensive. Meanwhile, our solution is plain to see," Oleg Minin, Professor of the Division for Electronic Engineering of the TPU School of Non-Destructive Testing, one of the authors of the article, says.

In their experiments, the scientists used a microparticle in the form of the Teflon cube, an available dielectric material through which electromagnetic waves of the terahertz range are capable to percolate. The cube was put on the surface of the detector.

"There is a responsive site inside of the detector. The site can be made from various materials but its typical scale is always less than the wavelength. It is the area responsible for trapping electromagnetic waves and transferring them. Due to the form and material, our cube possesses a capability to focalize radiation well, falling on the responsive site of the detector, in the scale limited to or smaller than a diffraction-limited system. The experiments conducted jointly with the Spanish colleagues proved it: the particle focalized the radiation and the emitted radiation fell into the responsive area," Oleg Minin explains.

According to the scientists, the developed method of detector responsivity enhancement without changing its design is applied to almost any detectors of various ranges.

During the experiments, the scientists fixed responsivity enhancement by 11 decibels, which is 3.5 folds higher than the standard parameters of the detector.

The researchers from University of Salamanca (Spain), Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain), Institute of High-Pressure Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland) and Imperial College London (England) took part in the research. The research was conducted with the support of the TPU Competitiveness Enhancement Program.

When it comes to career aspirations for teenagers, a University of Houston psychology researcher believes it's best to shoot for the moon, so you can at least land in the stars. The truth is the moon may sometimes be unreachable.

In the Journal of Career Assessment, Kevin Hoff, assistant professor of psychology, reports the existence of important discrepancies between young people's dream jobs and employment realities.

"Almost 50% of adolescents aspired to investigative or artistic careers, which together account for only 8% of the U.S. labor market," reports Hoff, whose research examined the career aspirations of 3,367 adolescents (age 13-18 years) from 42 U.S. states. Investigative jobs include those in the field of science and research.

Hoff's team conducted a large-scale coding effort using the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) to compile the automation risk levels, educational requirements, and vocational interests of career aspirations.

"Results revealed that most adolescents aspired to careers with low potential for automation. However, there were large discrepancies between adolescents' aspirations and the number of jobs available in the labor market," said Hoff.

For females, the most popular aspirations were doctors, veterinarians, teachers, and nurses. Doctor was most popular in early adolescence (accounting for around 12% of all female aspirations at ages 13-15), whereas veterinarian, teacher, and nurse were more popular in late adolescence (ages 16-18). For males, athlete was overwhelmingly the most popular aspiration during early adolescence (accounting for 22-32% of male aspirations at ages 13-15) but became less popular in late adolescence (accounting for 5-13% at ages 16-18).

"Both males and females showed a similar pattern of increasing variability in their career aspirations with age, indicating more diverse career goals," said Hoff. Indeed, reality may have set in. Many 13-year-old males who wanted to be professional athletes had changed their minds by 18 to aspire towards more attainable jobs.

One of the most important ways to help children find ambitious, yet realistic career goals is through exposing them to a variety of career types they would not naturally see in their daily lives.

"Young girls often want to become teachers because that is what they see every day," said Hoff. "It's equally important to show them that other occupations exist, especially lesser-known careers with growing employment demands, such as those in the STEM fields." Hoff said teachers often struggle with directing students who have very lofty career ambitions but mediocre grades, although there's an upside to having such ambition.

"Adolescents who want to become doctors may end up with a really good job doing something else in the medical field, and that's a positive outcome. The negatives are they might end up working toward an unattainable career, pursuing education that's a bad fit in interest or ability," said Hoff.

Despite a rapidly changing labor market, little research exists on how youth's career goals correspond to projections about the future of work. "This kind of career development research can make a positive impact in helping individuals and societies prepare for the future of work," said Hoff.

In the end, Hoff's work does not discourage ambition, but amplifies the need for a good back-up plan.

"It's good to encourage students to have prestigious careers, but as they get older, parents, teachers or counselors should also be real with them and help them understand how many people actually work in their dream fields, and how likely it is they will get a job in that field," said Hoff.

Spoiler alert: Only 2% of Americans are employed in the arts.

Hoff's team included Drake Van Egdom, University of Houston; Alexis Hanna, University of Nevada-Reno; Chris Napolitano and James Rounds, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Scientists from Helmholtz Zentrum München revise the current textbook knowledge about gastrulation, the formation of the basic body plan during embryonic development. Their study in mice has implications for cell replacement strategies and cancer research.

Gastrulation is the formation of the three principal germ layers - endoderm, mesoderm and ectoderm. Understanding the formation of the basic body plan is not only important to reveal how the fertilized egg gives rise to an adult organism, but also how congenital diseases arise. In addition, gastrulation serves as the basis to understand processes during embryonic development called epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition which is known to lead to cancer metastasis in adulthood when dysregulated.

"The famous biologist Lewis Wolpert once said that it is not birth, marriage or death, but gastrulation which is truly the most important time of our life. However, there are many things we still don't know about this phenomenon," says study leader Heiko Lickert.

In a new study, researchers could show that the formation of the endoderm germ layer is driven by a different mechanism than it has been assumed for a long time. In contrast to the mesoderm, which undergoes an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, the endoderm forms independent of this process. The researchers revealed that its formation is regulated by mechanisms of epithelial cell plasticity that allows cells to leave an epithelium and migrate away. During this process, a gene regulatory protein shields the endoderm from undergoing a mesenchymal transition.

A better understanding of endoderm formation has the potential to advance cell replacement therapy (by improving stem cell differentiation into endoderm in vitro). Moreover, epithelial cell plasticity might be an alternative mechanism of cancer cell metastasis and further studies could identify novel targets for therapeutic intervention.

"Our study has not only revealed further details of germ layer formation, but also has broader implications for stem cell differentiation and cancer metastasis of the most common and deadliest cancers worldwide," explains first author Katharina Scheibner.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Researchers report that small quantities of useful molecules such as hydrocarbons are produced when carbon dioxide and water react in the presence of light and a silver nanoparticle catalyst. Their validation study - made possible through the use of a high-resolution analytical technique - could pave the way for CO2-reduction technologies that allow industrial-scale production of renewable carbon-based fuels.

The study, led by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign chemistry professor Prashant Jain, probes chemical activity at the surface of silver nanoparticle catalysts under visible light and uses carbon isotopes to track the origin and production of these previously undetected chemical reactions. The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.

Sunlight-driven conversion of CO2 and water into energy-dense multicarbon compounds is a viable technology for renewable energy generation and chemical manufacturing. Because of this, researchers have been on the hunt for synthetic catalysts that facilitate large-scale CO2 reduction into multicarbon molecules, the study reports.

"Industrial-level catalytic chemical reactions are usually tested and optimized on the basis of the bulk profile of the final products," Jain said. "But there are chemical species formed at the intermediate stages of such reactions, on the surface of the catalysts, that might be too scarce to detect and measure using conventional methods but are fundamental signifiers of how a catalyst functions."

In the lab, Jain's team used a specially outfitted Raman spectroscope to detect and identify single molecules formed at the surface of individual silver nanoparticles. By isolating a single nanoparticle on which the chemical reactions progress, the researchers can use a highly focused laser to excite molecules forming on the catalyst surface to create a spectral signal that identifies the molecules formed in discrete, elementary steps of the overall chemical process.

"I like to think of this work in terms of a story," Jain said. "There is an overall theme to a story, which is the reduction of CO2. The main characters are CO2, H2O, silver nanoparticles, carbon monoxide and hydrogen ions, for example. But there are also some more minor but very interesting characters like butanol, acetate and oxalic acid that help tell the back story of the main characters. And sometimes, the minor characters are a lot more interesting than the major ones."

Sometimes minor characters can come with some unintended players, Jain said. To ensure that the intermediate carbon-based molecules the researchers detected are a result of the CO2 reduction process and not contamination, they used CO2 containing only carbon-13 isotope, which makes up only 1.1% of the carbon on Earth.

"Using carbon-13 to trace the reaction pathways allowed us to confirm that any hydrocarbons measured were there as a result of the CO2 we intentionally added in the reaction vessel, and not accidentally introduced via contamination of the silver nanoparticles or later during the analysis process," Jain said. "Carbon-13 is rare, so if we were to detect it in our reaction products, we would know it was the result of the light-driven conversion of CO2 and C-C bond formation."

The scale of multicarbon molecule formation by using silver nanoparticle catalysts remains very small at this stage of the research, Jain said. However, researchers can concentrate on developing improved synthetic catalysts and scaling up for industrial production, now that the promise of light-harvesting nanoparticles has been revealed.

A new study by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers has given scientists their first look at the genomic landscape of tumors that have grown resistant to drugs targeting the abnormal KRASG12C protein. Their work shows that, far from adopting a common route to becoming resistant, the cells take a strikingly diverse set of avenues, often several at a time.

The findings, reported online today in the New England Journal of Medicine, underscore the need for new drugs that inhibit KRAS differently than current agents do. And, because resistance can arise through many different mechanisms, effective treatment for these cancers will likely require combinations of KRAS inhibitors and other targeted drugs.

"Mutations in the KRAS gene are fairly common across cancer types," said Dana-Farber's Mark Awad, MD, PhD, the co-first author of the paper with Shengwu Liu, PhD, also of Dana-Farber. "The particular mutation we focused on in this study, KRASG12C, is found in about 13% of non-small cell lung cancers [NSCLC], where it's often associated with tobacco use, in up to 3% of colorectal cancers, and less frequently in a range of other cancers. While no targeted therapy has been approved for this specific molecular subtype, two inhibitors of the KRASG12C protein - adagrasib and sotorasib - have shown promise in clinical trials, especially in patients with NSCLC."

"While results from these early clinical trials are encouraging, the cancer usually becomes resistant to these drugs," Awad continued. "The mechanisms of resistance - the genomic and other changes that occur that allow the cancer to begin growing again - are largely unknown. This study sought to identify them."

In a multi-institutional effort, researchers collected tumor samples from 38 patients with cancers carrying KRASG12C mutations - 27 with NSCLC, 10 with colorectal cancer, and one with cancer of the appendix. Analysis of the samples uncovered possible causes of resistance to adagrasib in 17 of the patients, seven of whom had multiple causes.

The resistance mechanisms fell into three categories:

New alterations in KRAS - the development of mutations other than G12C (at amino acid positions such as G12, G13, R68, H95, and Y96) or an increased number of copies of KRASG12C itself.

Abnormalities in an array of genes other than KRASG12C. These genes included BRAF, MET, ALK, RET, MAP2K1, and others.

Two cases in which lung adenocarcinomas (cancers that start in secretory cells) transitioned to become squamous cell carcinomas, a different subtype of NSCLC.

The number of patients with KRAS alterations and non-KRAS genetic abnormalities was roughly equal, and many patients had both types of resistance mechanisms.

The effort to uncover KRAS mutations associated with drug resistance was also led by the study's senior author, Andrew Aguirre, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Aguirre and his colleagues created a series of cell lines, each containing the G12C mutation plus an additional mutation elsewhere in the KRAS gene. The set represented every possible second mutation in KRASG12C that would give rise to an abnormal protein. The researchers then ran tests to see which of the doubly mutated genes gave cells the ability to become resistant to sotorasib or an adagrasib-like compound. They also tested the further-mutated versions of KRASG12C that the team had identified in patients.

They found that some of the new mutations conferred resistance to both agents, whereas others provided resistance to just one.

"In addition to identifying resistance mutations that have already occurred in patients receiving adagrasib, our study also provides an atlas of all possible mutations in KRASG12C that can cause resistance to adagrasib and/or sotorasib," Aguirre said. "These results will be a valuable resource for oncologists to interpret future acquired mutations that occur in patients who become resistant to these drugs and may be used to guide the choice of which KRASG12C inhibitor is right for each patient."

The study results point to the variety of ways cancers with KRASG12C mutations can overcome the effects of adagrasib, the authors say. "Cancers with the KRASG12C mutation constitute a large proportion of all lung cancers, and many pharmaceutical companies are developing KRASG12C inhibitors," Awad observed. "The hope is that studies such as this, which uncover resistance mechanisms, will help drive future studies of combination therapies to delay or prevent resistance or overcome it when it occurs."

Organic solar elements with the self-assembling molecular-thin layer (SAM) of hole-transporting material, the technology, which was used in producing a record-breaking tandem solar cell, achieved 18.4 power conversion efficiency. The invention of Lithuanian chemists working at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), commercialized by several global companies proved versatile and applicable to different solar technologies.

Organic solar cells are made of common organic elements such as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, fluorine, oxygen, and sulphur. Their raw materials are cheap, abundant, and can be easily recycled. Although the organic photovoltaic (OPV) elements are lighter, more flexible and cheaper to produce, their efficiency still falls behind that of other photovoltaic technologies, including silicone, perovskite and tandem solar cells. And yet, this aspect may soon change.

At the end of 2018, a group of Lithuanian chemists from Kaunas University of Technology synthesised a material, which self-assembles into a molecule-thick layer, aka monolayer, can cover a variety of surfaces and function as a hole-transporting layer in a solar element. Until recently, the self-assembling monolayers (SAMs) have been used to produce record-breaking perovskite/silicon and CIGS/perovskite tandem solar cells. However, the technology also proved very efficient - reaching nearly record-breaking 18.4 power conversion - when used in an organic solar cell, produced by the group of researchers headed by Professor Thomas Anthopoulos at the KAUST University in Saudi Arabia.

"We made some modifications in the material used in SAM formation to tailor it for organic solar elements. However, our technology, offering a breakthrough approach towards photovoltaic elements' production remains the same: the surface is dipped into a solution and a molecule-thick semiconductor layer is formed. The technology is cheap, efficient and versatile", says Dr Artiom Magomedov, the co-author of the invention.

As the materials synthesised by KTU chemists are now commercialised and freely available in the market for research groups and companies all over the world, the discovery continues to advance the development of photovoltaic technologies.

"Last year, we noticed an article published by the researchers from KAUST, where they described the achieved very high efficiency of an organic solar cell while using our SAMs. We contacted the scientists and offered to collaborate in enhancing the capacities of the material. Due to the pandemic restrictions, all cooperation was remote - we sent the synthesised materials by post and our colleagues in Saudi Arabia built the organic solar cells and measured their properties", explains Dr Magomedov.

The organic solar cell using Br-2PACz molecule-thin coating as a hole-transporting layer achieved a power conversion efficiency of 18.4 per cent, which is currently among the highest in OPV technologies. Moreover, the electrode constructed was chemically stable, and after removal of the SAM, it could be recycled and reused to construct fresh highly-performing OPV cells.

The researchers emphasise that the use of similar SAMs could be potentially extended in other applications including light-emitting diodes, photodetectors or organic transistors. According to Dr Magomedov, all different solar technologies, which are currently being developed, will find their niches in the market - as OPV cells are lighter, can be made transparent and flexible, can be used for charging drones, household electronics, for indoor photovoltaics. Currently, no OPV elements are mass-produced.

"The semiconducting properties of organic elements are lower than those of non-organic materials. Therefore, the achieved efficiency results are very impressive for everyone working in the field. After the publication, a Swedish company "Dyenamo" has already obtained the licence to produce our materials tailored for the organic solar elements, as they see the potential of this technology", says Professor Vytautas Getautis, the Head of the KTU research group behind the invention.

What do pipes and anchors have to do with storing energy? More than you might think! A new IIASA-led study explored the potential of a lesser known, but promising sustainable energy storage system called Buoyancy Energy Storage.

There is general consensus that renewable energy sources will play an important role in ensuring a healthier and more sustainable future for the planet and its people, and many countries are indeed already seeing such technologies displacing "dirty" fossil fuels in the power sector in an effort to lower emissions. The biggest problem with renewable energy sources, however, is that power supply is intermittent, meaning that the energy output at any given time does not necessarily meet the demand at that time. With solar power generation for instance, electricity generation peaks during the day when electricity demand is low, resulting in times of energy excess alternating with times of energy shortage.

The balance between energy supply and demand is a prerequisite for any stable energy system. In the case of intermittent renewable energy supply, reliable and efficient ways to store energy will be crucial to ensure the successful adoption of these technologies. In their latest paper published in the journal Energy Storage, IIASA researcher Julian Hunt and colleagues explored one of the lesser known, but promising sustainable energy storage systems, namely Buoyancy Energy Storage Technology.

"Buoyancy Energy Storage Technology (BEST) can be particularly useful to store intermittent energy from offshore wind power plants, especially in coastal regions and small islands. As an added benefit, the same technology can be used to compress hydrogen and transport it underwater," Hunt explains.

The concept behind Buoyancy Energy Storage is based on the well-established technology of pumped energy storage systems. The system typically consists of floating platforms placed close to offshore wind farms and uses an electric motor/generator for storing energy by lowering a compressed gas recipient, usually a series of balloons or tanks, in locations with deep sea floors and generating electricity by allowing the compressed gas recipient, to rise through the water. Hunt and his colleagues, however, propose new components for the construction of a BEST system, such as the introduction of a series of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic pipelines arranged vertically to form a cube, coupled with an anchor system connected to the sea floor.

The team performed a number of simulations to test their amendments to the system and determine the potential for storing energy at different ocean depths. Their results indicate that the deeper the system, the less the volume of compression gasses varies with depth and the more energy the system stores. However, the researchers also point out that installing the system at a greater depth inevitably comes at a higher cost. With that said, the cost of using a BEST system to store energy still emerged as lower per megawatt hour (MWh) compared to the cost of using conventional battery systems.

"While the cost of batteries today is around US$ 150 /MWh, the cost of BEST is just US$ 50 to US$ 100 per MWh. Given that the cost of installed capacity for batteries is smaller than in BEST systems (US$ 4 to US$ 8 million per megawatt), battery and BEST systems could be operated in conjunction to provide energy storage for a coastal city or for an offshore wind power plant. It is important to also bear in mind that the cost of BEST systems can be significantly reduced if substantial investment is made to the technology," Hunt says.

Another important area where BEST systems can be applied is to compress hydrogen for storage and transportation. Efforts to decarbonize the global economy have placed a renewed emphasis on the benefits of a future hydrogen economy. One of the main challenges to a hydrogen economy is the costs involved in compressing and transporting the hydrogen.

According to the researchers, the investment costs associated with compressing hydrogen using BEST systems are around 30 times lower than it would be using conventional compressors, and the process involved would have the added benefit of significantly reducing the energy consumption in compression. Once the hydrogen is compressed underwater, it can be contained in a pressure tank and brought to the surface, or it can be transported to other continents in large, deep underwater pipelines partially filled with sand. The sand will contribute to lowering the floating capacity of the pipeline so that it remains at the designed depth and can be fixed to the bottom of the ocean with anchors.

"Such hydrogen and sand filled pipelines combined with BEST systems have the potential to become the backbone that sustains the future hydrogen economy, connecting all continents," Hunt concludes.

Psycholinguists from the HSE Center for Language and Brain, in collaboration with researchers from the City University of New York and the University of Stuttgart, investigated how reading in Russian varies among different groups of readers. The authors used a novel method in bilingualism research -comparison of the eye-movement sequences (scanpaths) in adult native speakers of Russian, Russian-speaking children, and adult bilinguals with different levels of Russian proficiency. The results of the study were published in Reading Research Quarterly.

A total of 120 readers took part in the study, with 30 participants in each group. Participants included adult native Russian speakers, second-grade Russian primary school students, students at American universities who study Russian as a foreign language (RFL), and, finally, heritage-language speakers. The last group included bilingual individuals who either were born in a Russian-speaking family in the USA or emigrated with their families at an early age from a Russian-speaking country. This means that Russian is an "inherited" mother tongue for them, although in most cases, it becomes a non-dominant language in a later childhood when they learn the new language of their environment (i.e., English). All participants read the same simple sentences in Russian (such as 'Andrey bought milk, cheese and sour cream in a store.') while their eye movements were recorded.

The authors found that each group of readers has a specific reading pattern. Adult native speakers exhibit a 'fluent' scanpath reading process: they read fast (2 seconds per sentence), fixate on the words for a short time (290 ms), rarely regress to words, and often skip them (17% of all words in a sentence). The researchers suggest that such pattern reflects 'effortless' reading: adult native speakers do not encounter any difficulties in visual word recognition or in processing the grammatical structure of sentences.

Reading patterns for second-graders are completely different. They take more time to read a sentence (6 seconds per sentence), fixate words for a longer time (690 ms), re-read words more often and skip them less often (9%). The researchers defined this pattern as an 'intermediate' reading process. Following the conclusions from previous reading studies involving children, the researchers believe that the intermediate pattern reflects difficulties experienced by children at the local lexical level: beginner readers are not as efficient as adults in decoding letters into sounds. Such inefficiency hinders visual recognition of words and, accordingly, slows down the lexical access to the child's 'mental lexicon' (i.e., the connection between the written word and its oral representation).

To compare reading patterns, the authors of the paper used cluster analysis, which showed that heritage speakers with higher levels of Russian proficiency also read following the intermediate pattern. However, RFL students and heritage speakers with lower language skills demonstrate a third, 'beginner' reading pattern. It is characterized by the longest fixation time on words (1,054 ms), the longest time per sentence (14 seconds), frequent re-reading of words and a low probability of skipping them (6%).

The main characteristic of the beginner pattern is re-reading big portions of sentences or whole sentences twice or more times (up to 5-6 times in some cases). The researchers suggest that such a pattern reflects not only the local difficulties in lexical access, but also the global problems with understanding written language, particularly difficulties in general information integration and comprehension of the grammatical structure of the sentences.

'The fact that bilingual heritage speakers had acquired Russian early (similar to native speakers they learn it from the birth), did not impact the development of their Russian reading skills. Even the advanced heritage speakers follow the same reading pattern as children of 8-9 years old, said Olga Parshina, researcher at the HSE Center for Language and Brain.

According to the authors, to be a member of the particular group of readers does not always mean to follow a single reading pattern. Many children and heritage speakers (and sometimes, RFL students) read sentences following different patterns, which means that readers can switch from one process to another.

'We will continue looking at linguistic and individual factors that impact the process of this switching. In the future, we hope that results will help teachers to boost the process of switching while teaching students to read,' said Anastasiya Lopukhina, researcher at the Center for Language and Brain.

SAN ANTONIO, June 23, 2021 - A typical Western high-fat diet can increase the risk of painful disorders common in people with conditions such as diabetes or obesity, according to a groundbreaking paper authored by a team led by The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, also referred to as UT Health San Antonio.

Moreover, changes in diet may significantly reduce or even reverse pain from conditions causing either inflammatory pain - such as arthritis, trauma or surgery - or neuropathic pain, such as diabetes. The novel finding could help treat chronic-pain patients by simply altering diet or developing drugs that block release of certain fatty acids in the body.

The paper, more than five years in the making, was published in the June edition of the journal Nature Metabolism by a collaborative team of 15 local researchers, headed by first co-authors Jacob T. Boyd, MD, PhD, and Peter M. LoCoco, PhD, of the Department of Endodontics at UT Health San Antonio.

In all, 11 of the co-authors are from UT Health San Antonio, including seven current or former students of its Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences; three represent the Department of Chemistry at the University of Texas at San Antonio; and one is from the Department of Neurology with the South Texas Veterans Health Care System.

"This study exemplifies team science at its best - multiple scientists and clinicians with complementary expertise working together to make lives better," said Kenneth M. Hargreaves, DDS, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Endodontics at UT Health San Antonio, and senior author of the paper.

Fatty acids and pain

Chronic pain is a major cause of disability around the world. But although fat-reduction often is advised to manage diabetes, auto-immune disorders and cardiovascular diseases, the role of dietary lipids, or fatty acids, in pain conditions has been relatively unknown.

In the new paper, Dr. Boyd and his colleagues used multiple methods in both mice and humans to study the role of polyunsaturated fatty acids in pain conditions. They found that typical Western diets high in omega-6 polyunsaturated fats served as a significant risk factor for both inflammatory and neuropathic pain.

Omega-6 fats, mainly found in foods with vegetable oils, have their benefits. But Western diets associated with obesity are characterized by much-higher levels of those acids in foods from corn chips to onion rings, than healthy omega-3 fats, which are found in fish and sources like flaxseed and walnuts.

Generally, unhealthy foods high in omega-6 fats include processed snacks, fast foods, cakes, and fatty and cured meats, among others.

Reversal of this diet, especially by lowering omega-6 and increasing omega-3 lipids, greatly reduced these pain conditions, the researchers found. Also, the authors demonstrated that skin levels of omega-6 lipids in patients with Type 2 diabetic neuropathic pain were strongly associated with reported pain levels and the need for taking analgesic drugs.

"This paper is a high-profile contribution for a huge unmet translational need as there are no treatments altering the nature of this neurological disease," said José E. Cavazos, MD, PhD, professor of neurology, assistant dean and director of the National Institutes of Health-designated South Texas Medical Scientist Training Program at UT Health San Antonio.

In an editorial accompanying the paper, Duke University researchers Aidan McGinnis and Ru-Rong Ji wrote, "This comprehensive and elegant study from Boyd et al. may serve as a foundation for new clinical trials and ultimately provide new avenues for the clinical treatment of neuropathies."

Only 1 in 10 older adults in a large national survey who were found to have cognitive impairment consistent with dementia reported a formal medical diagnosis of the condition.

Researchers at the University of Michigan, North Dakota State University and Ohio University used data from the Health and Retirement Study to develop a nationally representative sample of roughly 6 million Americans age 65 or older. They found that 91% of people with cognitive impairment consistent with dementia did not report a formal medical diagnosis of dementia or Alzheimer's disease.

"(The discrepancy) was higher than I was expecting," said Sheria Robinson-Lane, study co-author and assistant professor at the U-M School of Nursing.

When proxy reporters (generally, family members) responded, the prevalence dropped from 91% to around 75%, which is still very significant, she said. While many people may have been diagnosed and remain unaware or forgot about their diagnosis, what's concerning is that cognitive assessment, specifically dementia screening, isn't routine during annual well visits for older adults.

COVID-19 gives these numbers heightened significance because people with dementia have higher risk for hospitalization and death following an infection, Robinson-Lane said. COVID-19 also causes long-standing neurological effects in some people, perhaps increasing risk for future dementia-related diagnoses.

"Now more than ever, these routine screenings and assessments are really critical," she said. "I think it's particularly important to have some baseline information available to providers of patients over 65."

Co-author Ryan McGrath, an assistant professor at North Dakota State University, suggested that the migration to telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic further underscores the importance of cognitive assessments.

"We recommend that health care providers screen for low cognitive functioning during routine health assessments when possible," he said. "A telemedicine option may reduce clinic time and expand reach."

The prevalence of not having reported a dementia-related diagnosis, despite being identified as living with a cognitive impairment consistent with dementia, differed by gender, education and race.

People who identified as non-Hispanic Black had a higher estimated prevalence (93%) of no reported diagnosis, as did males (99.7%) compared to females (90.2%) The estimated prevalence of no reported diagnosis for non-high school graduates was about 93.5%, compared to 91% for those with at least a high school education.

"There is a large disparity in dementia-related treatment and diagnosis among Black older adults, who are often diagnosed much later in the disease trajectory compared to other racial and ethnic groups," Robinson-Lane said.

Education is often a proxy for socioeconomic status, so throughout life, wealthier individuals have more access to resources that affect both risk and disease progression, she said. And, evidence suggests that education may influence cognitive testing performance.

The Medicare visit is supposed to include a cognitive screening, but it can be difficult to ascertain a cognitive concern in a 20-minute annual visit, she said. Adding a specific cognitive assessment can also take up visit time.

Often, Robinson-Lane hears from concerned family members who don't know next steps, or the family member they're concerned about wants to maintain independence and privacy, and doctors can't share information without the patient's consent.

She encourages open communication and reminds families that they can still share information with the loved one's provider directly or through a nurse or medical assistant.

WACO, Texas (June 23, 2021) - When an organization supports its employees who choose to adopt children, the employees, their families, the adopted children and the organization itself experience positive benefits and outcomes, according to new research from Baylor University.

The study, "It Takes a Village: How Organizational Support for Adoption Positively Affects Employees and Their Families," is published in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. Researchers from Baylor's Hankamer School of Business include Matthew J. Quade, Ph.D., associate professor of management; Kaylee J. Hackney, Ph.D., assistant professor of management; and Dawn S. Carlson, Ph.D., professor of management.

"This research provides empirical evidence of specific outcomes for something that organizations have been doing with increasing frequency in recent years," said Quade, who led the study and is an adoptive parent. "Such support has primarily come via financial reimbursement or leave policies. Our research provides evidence of specific ways that employees and their families benefit from such support."

The study included surveys of 592 married couples (1,184 total surveyed participants) who had adopted a child within the past two years. The results show:

Commitment to the organization for adoptive employees as well as their spouse is greater when their organization supports their adoption of a child.

Adoptive employees who work in organizations that support their adoption of a child have positive effects spill over into their family such as increased family functioning and reduced relationship tension.

Spouses experience greater levels of family functioning and lower levels of relationship tension when the other spouse's employing organization supports their adoption of a child.

Adopted children benefit indirectly from their parents' organization if the organization supported their adoption. This benefit comes in the form of a stronger attachment to the adoptive parents.

"A child's attachment to the adoptive parent(s) is obviously a key metric in the adoption community," Quade said, "and we found this to be positively impacted as a result of organizational support for adoption."

Percentage of U.S. employers offering adoption assistance grows

The United States historically accounts for nearly half of all adoptions that take place worldwide each year. In 2014, more than 110,000 children were adopted by parents in the U.S., according to the study.

"With each adoption, there is presumably one working parent, and in many cases, there are two working parents who must navigate balancing work demands alongside an extremely complex, new and unique family-life demand - the adoption of a child," researchers wrote. "Organizations have identified that they can play a role in supporting employees who are adopting a child and they have increasingly responded."

The study points to an annual survey by the Society for Human Resource Management that shows the percentage of U.S. employers offering adoption assistance had risen from 7% in 2015 to 10% in 2019.

The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, which is referenced in the study, produces a list of the 100 Best Adoption-Friendly Workplaces. The foundation measures adoption assistance through activities such as financial reimbursement for adoption-related expenses, paid or unpaid leave, flexible work arrangements or managerial support for employees during and after the adoption process.

The researchers define this support as "the intentional effort on the part of an organization, through financial, environmental or procedural means, to support an employee who is in the process of adopting or has recently adopted a child."

The organization's commitment to assist with adoption can result in reciprocal feelings from the employees who've been helped, as well as spouses. Quade said that commitment to the organization could range from a sense of belonging or emotional attachment to the organization to a desire to spend the rest of one's career with that organization.

"Alternative form of corporate social responsibility"

The researchers found that adoption-friendly benefits offered by organizations are a worthwhile investment for employees and their families.

"Support for employees who are adopting a child can be strengthened when everyone within the organization is supportive," Quade said. "More specifically, direct supervisors and coworkers of those employees who are adopting a child can stand to contribute a great deal to the level of support an employee feels when going through an adoption process."

Quade said, based on this study, more organizations should consider enacting policies that support employees who are using an alternative, untraditional way of building a family (i.e., adoption).

"Organizational support for adoption can be an alternative form of corporate social responsibility as its offering could have indirect effects on the communities in which they operate and around the world by helping reduce the number of children needing to be adopted," he said.