Culture

A new study shows that, contrary to widespread belief within the solar power industry, new kinds of solar cells and panels don't necessarily have to last for 25 to 30 years in order to be economically viable in today's market.

Rather, solar panels with initial lifetimes of as little as 10 years can sometimes make economic sense, even for grid-scale installations -- thus potentially opening the door to promising new solar photovoltaic technologies that have been considered insufficiently durable for widespread use.

The new findings are described in a paper in the journal Joule, by Joel Jean, a former MIT postdoc and CEO of startup company Swift Solar; Vladimir Bulovi?, professor of electrical engineering and computer science and director of MIT.nano; and Michael Woodhouse of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado.

"When you talk to people in the solar field, they say any new solar panel has to last 25 years," Jean says. "If someone comes up with a new technology with a 10-year lifetime, no one is going to look at it. That's considered common knowledge in the field, and it's kind of crippling."

Jean adds that "that's a huge barrier, because you can't prove a 25-year lifetime in a year or two, or even 10." That presumption, he says, has left many promising new technologies stuck on the sidelines, as conventional crystalline silicon technologies overwhelmingly dominate the commercial solar marketplace. But, the researchers found, that does not need to be the case.

"We have to remember that ultimately what people care about is not the cost of the panel; it's the levelized cost of electricity," he says. In other words, it's the actual cost per kilowatt-hour delivered over the system's useful lifetime, including the cost of the panels, inverters, racking, wiring, land, installation labor, permitting, grid interconnection, and other system components, along with ongoing maintenance costs.

Part of the reason that the economics of the solar industry look different today than in the past is that the cost of the panels (also known as modules) has plummeted so far that now, the "balance of system" costs -- that is, everything except the panels themselves -- exceeds that of the panels. That means that, as long as newer solar panels are electrically and physically compatible with the racking and electrical systems, it can make economic sense to replace the panels with newer, better ones as they become available, while reusing the rest of the system.

"Most of the technology is in the panel, but most of the cost is in the system," Jean says. "Instead of having a system where you install it and then replace everything after 30 years, what if you replace the panels earlier and leave everything else the same? One of the reasons that might work economically is if you're replacing them with more efficient panels," which is likely to be the case as a wide variety of more efficient and lower-cost technologies are being explored around the world.

He says that what the team found in their analysis is that "with some caveats about financing, you can, in theory, get to a competitive cost, because your new panels are getting better, with a lifetime as short as 15 or even 10 years."

Although the costs of solar cells have come down year by year, Bulovi? says, "the expectation that one had to demonstrate a 25-year lifetime for any new solar panel technology has stayed as a tautology. In this study we show that as the solar panels get less expensive and more efficient, the cost balance significantly changes."

He says that one aim of the new paper is to alert the researchers that their new solar inventions can be cost-effective even if relatively short lived, and hence may be adopted and deployed more rapidly than expected. At the same time, he says, investors should know that they stand to make bigger profits by opting for efficient solar technologies that may not have been proven to last as long, knowing that periodically the panels can be replaced by newer, more efficient ones.

"Historical trends show that solar panel technology keeps getting more efficient year after year, and these improvements are bound to continue for years to come," says Bulovi?. Perovskite-based solar cells, for example, when first developed less than a decade ago, had efficiencies of only a few percent. But recently their record performance exceeded 25 percent efficiency, compared to 27 percent for the record silicon cell and about 20 percent for today's standard silicon modules, according to Bulovi?. Importantly, in novel device designs, a perovskite solar cell can be stacked on top of another perovskite, silicon, or thin-film cell, to raise the maximum achievable efficiency limit to over 40 percent, which is well above the 30 percent fundamental limit of today's silicon solar technologies. But perovskites have issues with longevity of operation and have not yet been shown to be able to come close to meeting the 25-year standard.

Bulovi? hopes the study will "shift the paradigm of what has been accepted as a global truth." Up to now, he says, "many promising technologies never even got a start, because the bar is set too high" on the need for durability.

For their analysis, the team looked at three different kinds of solar installations: a typical 6-kilowatt residential system, a 200-kilowatt commercial system, and a large 100-megawatt utility-scale system with solar tracking. They used NREL benchmark parameters for U.S. solar systems and a variety of assumptions about future progress in solar technology development, financing, and the disposal of the initial panels after replacement, including recycling of the used modules. The models were validated using four independent tools for calculating the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), a standard metric for comparing the economic viability of different sources of electricity.

In all three installation types, they found, depending on the particulars of local conditions, replacement with new modules after 10 to 15 years could in many cases provide economic advantages while maintaining the many environmental and emissions-reduction benefits of solar power. The basic requirement for cost-competitiveness is that any new solar technology that is to be installed in the U.S should start with a module efficiency of at least 20 percent, a cost of no more than 30 cents per watt, and a lifetime of at least 10 years, with the potential to improve on all three.

Jean points out that the solar technologies that are considered standard today, mostly silicon-based but also thin-film variants such as cadmium telluride, "were not very stable in the early years. The reason they last 25 to 30 years today is that they have been developed for many decades." The new analysis may now open the door for some of the promising newer technologies to be deployed at sufficient scale to build up similar levels of experience and improvement over time and to make an impact on climate change earlier than they could without module replacement, he says.

"This could enable us to launch ideas that would have died on the vine" because of the perception that greater longevity was essential, Bulovi? says.

Oakland, Calif. - Being overweight or obese is commonly associated with diabetes, but a new Kaiser Permanente study finds the connection differs widely by race or ethnicity. Members of racial and ethnic minority groups were much more likely to have diabetes or prediabetes at lower weights -- even at normal or below-normal body mass index (BMI), according to research published in Diabetes Care.

The large analysis included more than 4.9 million people of diverse backgrounds and geographies who were part of the nationwide Patient Outcomes Research to Advance Learning network. The PORTAL study group, supported by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, includes data on more than 12 million patients contributed by all regions of Kaiser Permanente, along with HealthPartners in Minnesota and Denver Health.

Normal-weight Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders were 3 times more likely to have diabetes than normal-weight white people. Diabetes prevalence at normal BMI was 18% for Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders versus just 5% for whites; prevalence was also high for blacks (13.5%), Hispanics (12.9%), Asians (10.1%) and American Indians/Alaskan Natives (9.6%).

Disparities were also found in prediabetes but were not as pronounced. Results also differed by gender. Asians, Hispanics, and Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders had a higher prevalence of prediabetes at lower BMIs than other groups, particularly among women.

For primary care clinicians, the findings could signal a change in how they screen racial and ethnic minority patients for diabetes and prediabetes, said senior author Assiamira Ferrara, MD, PhD, a senior research scientist with the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, California. "This study suggests that along with screening patients who are overweight and obese, minorities should probably be screened even if they have a normal BMI, particularly as they get older," Ferrara said.

This study is one of the largest that has examined the relationship between BMI and diabetes and prediabetes prevalence. The study also included large enough samples of some understudied minority groups to draw conclusions about them, the authors said. The study offers new information about diabetes prevalence across BMI categories among Asians, Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, American Indians, and Alaskan Natives across the country.

This study took into account neighborhood-level measures of income and education, neither of which were found to fully explain the racial/ethnic differences in prevalence of diabetes beyond BMI. While access to primary care is a major factor in health care disparities, it was not seen as a contributor in this study because all of the patients had health insurance and were members of integrated health systems.

The authors speculated that there could be physiological differences among people of varying races and ethnicities relating to diabetes, citing the example of Asians having a higher share of body fat and visceral fat at the same BMI as other groups, which could lead to insulin resistance, prediabetes, and diabetes.

Lead author Yeyi Zhu, PhD, a research scientist with the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, called for better understanding of how the physiological mechanisms of diabetes may vary. "Future research could focus on body composition, genetics, and other lifestyle factors that may contribute to disparities in chronic disease burden," Zhu said.

She also noted that the analysis identified a group of people at risk who don't get as much attention for diabetes risk: those who are underweight. The study found significant differences in diabetes prevalence among underweight men, ranging from 7.3% in whites to 16.8% in American Indians/Alaskan Natives.

Bottom Line: An analysis of nearly 1.9 million patients diagnosed with breast cancer suggests overall survival is lower among men than women and that undertreatments and clinical characteristics account for much of the difference. The study included National Cancer Database data for 16,025 male and 1.8 million female patients diagnosed with breast cancer between 2004-2014. Men had higher mortality across all breast cancer stages. For men, the three-year survival rate was 86.4% and the five-year survival rate was 77.6%. For women, the three-year survival rate was 91.7% and the five-year survival rate was 86.4%. Limitations of the study include a lack of information on cancer recurrence and cause of death, as well as missing information on details of cancer pathology and  treatment, patient compliance data, lifestyle factors and coexisting illnesses. Study authors suggest future research focus on why clinical characteristics and biological features may have different implications for survival in male and female patients with breast cancer.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

Authors: Xiao-Ou Shu, M.D., Ph.D., the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, and coauthors

(doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2019.2803)

Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

More than one million Americans per year experience myocardial infarction, commonly known as a heart attack, as well as the healing and rebuilding phase that begins shortly thereafter - a complicated process which involves remodeling and repairing the heart.

This process is known as the granulation phase and is critical for healing. But due to bodily response in the form of inflammation and scarring, this phase simultaneously reduces cardiac function, significantly increasing the risk of future cardiac events, including heart failure.

Now, a new study published by Vanderbilt mechanobiology researchers details a possible solution for fine-tuning inflammation and cellular activity in cardiac recovery - thanks to an antibody initially developed for rheumatoid arthritis.

The paper is available today in the journal JCI Insight.

The research, conducted by a collaborative team from the Merryman Mechanobiology Laboratory at Vanderbilt University and medical research labs at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, looks at the inflammation phase after myocardial infarction events and is the first to target a specific protein, known as cadherin-11 - a major contributor to inflammation in cardiac fibrosis.

The new findings are significant as they build on existing work looking at cadherin-11, including a 2017 paper from the Vanderbilt team which showed how this particular antibody could target cadherin-11 to prevent calcific aortic valve disease.

"Some amount of inflammation is necessary in myocardial infarction, but becomes excessive and causes adverse side effects," noted senior author W. David Merryman, Walters Family Chair in the School of Engineering and a Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Pharmacology, Medicine, and Pediatrics. "This latest work with the antibody shows a new ability to maintain more precise control over the amount of inflammation in the fibrotic remodeling process, which yields reduced scarring and improved cardiac function."

Here's how it happens: In the aftermath of myocardial infarction, immune cells are first recruited to assist in stabilizing and clearing the heart of debris. Once that process is complete, signaling begins for inflammation to kick in and cells known as myofibroblasts begin remodeling. By using the antibody developed for blocking cadherin-11 in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, the researchers were able to similarly target and fine-tune the level of inflammation in cardiac recovery, thereby allowing the heart to better recover and return to operating at a healthier pace.

According to Merryman, the antibody has already been tested for clinical use, and thanks to this new research, is likely to generate excitement as a post-myocardial infarction treatment.

"Our studies using this antibody noted improvements in every metric," noted Merryman. "Starting with calcific aortic valve disease and now with myocardial infarction, we've seen significant improvements from short-term heart function to long-term prevention of progression into heart failure. This antibody is a major step forward for cardiac recovery."

Researchers from the Turku Bioscience Centre in Finland have found changes in molecules in the blood that might be new markers of type 1 diabetes. New findings may help understand the early pathogenesis of the disease.

Finland has the highest recorded incidence of type 1 diabetes in children younger than 15 years, and the global prevalence is continuously increasing among the children in many developed countries.

Using state-of-the-art metabolomics approach, researchers from the Turku Bioscience Centre, a joint unit of the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, found changes in circulating molecules in the blood, i.e. metabolites, already before the initiation of islet autoimmunity. The findings may have important implications in the search of early markers of type 1 diabetes and for understanding the disease pathogenesis.

The study was part of the extensive Finnish DIPP cohort study.

Early Prediction of Type 1 Diabetes May Be Feasible

In current preclinical settings, the appearance of islet autoantibody is the first detectable signal implicating the initiation of autoimmunity and risk of progression towards diabetes. However, although autoantibody positivity precedes the clinical disease by months to years, the time point at which autoantibody appears may already be too late for therapeutic approaches aimed at preventing progression to overt diabetes.

"Thus, our current and previous metabolomics-based findings suggest that early prediction of type 1 diabetes may be feasible, providing an extended window of opportunity for the interventions for disease prevention," says Group Leader at the Turku Bioscience Centre Matej Orešič.

The research group is working on validating their current and previous findings in a more extensive and more heterogeneous cohort study in collaboration with Professor Mikael Knip from the University of Helsinki.

"Our future objective is to provide new insights into type 1 diabetes disease pathogenesis through improved understanding of the metabolic and immune system interplay, which would be an important stepping stone for the early prediction as well as prevention of the disease," Orešič summarises.

It is known that the real sector of the economy is of paramount importance in the development of any region, in ensuring the growth of its inhabitants' welfare. Recently, Lobachevsky University researchers conducted a case study of Nizhny Novgorod and the Nizhny Novgorod region showing that the situation in the region had improved markedly on one of most important indicators, the volume of investment in fixed assets of industrial enterprises, the essential component of which are machinery and equipment. At the end of 2018, this indicator grew by 5.6%, to 259 billion rubles. According to the forecast for 2019, growth is planned at 6%. It is no coincidence that equipment maintenance and operating costs (EMOS) become one of the key effectiveness indicators of economic entities in manufacturing industries.

The accuracy and timeliness of accounting these costs and reflecting them in the cost of the product (work, services) determines the reliability of information on production costs in general and on the financial result of economic activity, which, in turn, provides the foundation of the information base for making current decisions and elaborating long-term development strategies for enterprises and the industry as a whole. Information about the EMOS is also an important component of the accounting and management types of reporting, as well as of budget planning documents and value stream mapping.

In accordance with the methodology proposed by a team of researchers at the Lobachevsky University of Nizhny Novgorod (UNN), which was developed with the aim of achieving a significant increase in the quality of the calculation result and the degree of information awareness of the management team of an enterprise and its divisions, the equipment maintenance and operating costs are separated depending on the processes that involve the consumption of these resources. The advantages of the proposed method is the speed of adaptation to changes occurring in the economic, technological and manufacturing areas of a business entity, as well as the universality of its application in all departments engaged in the stream of value creation.

As Professor Igor Mizikovsky, Head of the Department of Accounting at the UNN Institute of Economics and Entrepreneurship notes, the proposed approach, based on advanced methods of modern management accounting, makes it possible to achieve the goals and to significantly expand the information space for managing an industrial enterprise, to provide a strong basis for developing measures aimed at systematic reduction of production costs and technological losses, optimizing material procurement, improving the efficiency of resource management, etc.

"By using the proposed methodology in management accounting and production management practices, a more detailed analysis of the status of costs in the context of production processes can be achieved, conditions can be created for tracking the dynamics of the EMOS within a specified timeframe and bottlenecks in the value stream can be identified in a timely manner," notes Igor Mizikovsky.

Obtaining objective data on the use of resources in equipment maintenance processes, their reflection in the cost of production in the most correct manner is important in terms of adequately assessing the real potential of resource conservation, improving the efficiency of service operations, developing a list of measures to improve technological service, updating the machine tool fleet, and introducing integrated tools for equipment digitalization and the integration of the production facilities involved in value creation stream into the overall production system.

The studies conducted by the UNN researchers are based on the integrated application of the systems, operation-oriented and functional-process approaches, as well as on the use of the methods of decomposition, aggregation, observation, description and measurement. The methodology developed and described in the article is intended for use in accounting practices of many industrial enterprises, subject to its flexible adjustment to the specific features of a particular business entity.

In the future, it is planned to test and introduce the methodology at a number of industrial enterprises in Russia, primarily in Nizhny Novgorod and the Nizhny Novgorod region. Accountants and managers of organizations in the real sector of the economy will be trained to apply it.

According to researchers, the further research in this subject area should be aimed at developing new standard flexible and adaptable methodological solutions, and at updating existing practices in this field.

Standard solutions in the field of cost accounting will greatly reduce the complexity of the development and implementation of appropriate tools in the enterprise. In fact, the need for accountants and managers to constantly "invent the wheel" will be eliminated.

[Introduction]

Recent improvement of touch screens has allowed a wide range of applications due to their convenience of use, including ATMs and smartphones, for example. In the case of a smartphone, a user can hold it in the hand with the most convenient tilt angle and distance. In the case of an ATM, an installed touch screen is operated by a user while standing. Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) Z8519 recommends that touch screens should be installed below shoulder height when the screen is placed vertically and above elbow height when placed horizontally. However, not many studies have been performed on their installation for the least physical workload of users and best screen visibility. The height of installation is especially important; if a touch screen is installed too high, it is difficult for small persons; while too low, one may need to crouch (Figure 1). Installation tilt angle is deeply related to the height for ease of use. Here, we performed research on physical workload and screen visibility in the use of touch screens for a Pareto optimal solution*1) (i.e. optimal solution for both parameters).

[Results]

Scientists at the Institute for Frontier Science Initiative, Kanazawa University, conducted the current research in collaboration with a scientist from Tokyo Metropolitan University. Ten students participated in the experiments. The height of the touch screen was set as 50, 65 or 80% of each participant's height. The tilt angle of the touch screen was set as 0 (horizontal), 45 and 90 degrees (vertical) (Figure 2A). The size of the touch screen buttons was 10, 20 and 30 mm (Figure 2B). For screen visibility, a subjective scale for the individual participating students was adopted. The physical workload was quantified as joint torque ratio*2) (JTR) calculated after measurements of the angles of joints, i.e. neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist, waist, knee, and ankle.

The Pareto optimal solution using those data showed ranges of 1124-1251 mm for the absolute height and 44.4-67.9° for the tilt angle. Concerning the size of the characters, the larger size showed better visibility; 20 mm buttons proved to be enough in practice. The visibility was reduced, however, when the size was 10 mm.

[Future prospects]

This research is a case study for multi-objective optimization of screen visibility and physical workload of users on installed touch screens. Touch screens of ATM provide a trade-off relationship; i.e. improvement of one characteristic causes depreciation of the other. Nonetheless, an optimal solution was obtained for both visibility and physical workload, although the number of subjects was just 10 and the experimental conditions were rather limited. The current research was performed with healthy young students but for future and more comprehensive studies, it is necessary to include aged and even handicapped persons. In addition, while this research imposed rather short-time tasks at the touch screen on the subjects, we plan future studies on more time-consuming tasks.

A new study from the University of Copenhagen reports that the prevalence of overweight dogs is markedly larger among overweight owners than among normal weight owners. Part of the explanation lies in whether treats are used as training tools or "hygge-snacks". It is the first major study on canine obesity in Denmark.

There's a bit of truth to the saying "like owner, like dog". This has now been confirmed by researchers. For the first time in Denmark, researchers have systematically investigated the factors related to our four-legged friends being overweight or obese. One of the results demonstrates an unambiguous correlation between the weight status of a dog and its owner.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Copenhagen, shows that the prevalence of heavy or obese dogs is more than twice as large among overweight or obese owners than among owners who are slim or of a normal weight.

Part of the explanation rests upon how owners manage dog treats. The research results show a correlation between overweight dog owners and the use of dog treats as "hygge-candy" (cozy-candy).

"Whereas normal weight owners tend to use treats for training purposes, overweight owners prefer to provide treats for the sake of hygge. For example, when a person is relaxing on the couch and shares the last bites of a sandwich or a cookie with their dog," says Charlotte R. Bjørnvad of the University of Copenhagen's Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences. Bjørnvad, a veterinarian and professor, is the main author of the research article, now published in the journal Preventive Veterinary Medicine.

The researchers studied 268 adult dogs recruited at animal clinics around Zealand and the Capital Region of Denmark. Of the pets recruited, 20% were either heavy or obese.

"Oftentimes, people don't consider their dog's weight status to be a problem. And this might contribute to a dog's being overweight. But being heavy or obese does have a great impact on dog health - which on average results in a shortened lifespan", according to bioethics professor and article co-author, Peter Sandøe, of the University of Copenhagen's Department of Food and Resource Economics.

Previous studies have shown that on average, heavy dogs live 1.3 years less than dogs on restrictive diets and that part of the explanation may be an earlier development of osteoarthritis with the heavier weight.

Castration triples the risk of being heavy or obese

The researchers also looked into how castration and sterilization can be risk factors in relation to dog weight. The study shows that castrated male dogs have three times as high a risk of being heavy or obese compared to intact dogs. On the other hand, the study demonstrated that sterilization has no impact on weight in female dogs. Whether they are intact or not, female dogs, have an increased risk of being heavy compared with intact males.

"When males are castrated, they face just as high of a risk of becoming overweight as females. Castration seems to decrease the ability to regulate the appetite in male dogs and at the same time, it might also decrease the incentive to exercise which results in an increased risk of becoming overweight. Therefore, an owner should be careful about how they feed their dog after it has been castrated," says Bjørnvad.

Sandøe adds: "They might even want to consider not neutering. As long as there are no runaway females in the area, there are in most cases no reason to neuter."

The researchers hope that this new knowledge raises awareness about canine weight among veterinarians and dog owners, and that it contributes to better obesity prevention and treatment strategies by identifying focus areas for intervention.

With a study of the network between nerve and muscle cells in turtles, researchers from the University of Copenhagen have gained new insight into the way in which movements are generated and maintained. In the long term, the new knowledge may have an impact on the treatment of, for example, ALS and spinal cord injuries.

For most people, it is easy to put one leg in front of the other and keep walking. The ability to do it is second nature or, so to speak, in our bones. Quite literally.

'Most movements are actually generated in the spinal cord. Naturally, there is a conversation with high-ranking parts of the nervous system, such as the cerebrum, but there are also reflexes that simply stem from the back', says Associate Professor and Head of Research Rune W. Berg from the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Copenhagen.

He and his research group are behind a study of the network between nerve and muscle cells which has been published in the renowned scientific journal Nature Communications, and which provides completely new insight into the ways in which movements are generated and maintained.

Turtle Crawl

In the study, the research group used electrodes to study the spinal cord reflex of turtles when they scratched themselves with one hind leg. A reflex also found in dogs, cats and a number of other mammals.

Humans are likewise equipped with a variety of spinal reflexes. And although in terms of the evolution, we are rather distant from the turtle, scientists believe that many of the basic mechanisms are the same.

Thus, when the turtle rhythmically scratches itself using crawl movements from its hind leg, the fireworks of lightning quick neurological impulses that are set off inside the shell are not far from the mechanisms that also trigger our own muscles.

From Metronome to Network

So far, it has been a common assumption that the activation of muscle neurons originates from some sort of command centre that sends a signal to many cells at one time.

'Because the origin of movement has been difficult to find, it has long been assumed that it is a small core that sets the pace. Like some kind of metronome. But our data has shown that it may in fact be a large network', says Assistant Professor Henrik Lindén from the research group behind the study.

To test whether it was a matter of small command units or a large network, the researchers compared the relatively quiet rhythm of the turtle's movement with the rapid neurological impulses from the spine.

To the surprise of the research group, the measurements showed no evidence of correlation - and thus no evidence that the neurological signals in multiple cells should have originated from the same source, which would indeed have been the case if it had been a command centre that signalled to multiple cells at the same time.

Instead, the researchers now believe that neurological signals originate from a major, scattered network of cells, each of which sends signals to only a few other cells. A result which the group has subsequently replicated in computer models of a simulated, simple nervous system.

Potential for ALS and Spinal Cord Injuries

With these results, researchers have come a step closer to precisely understanding where and how movements are actually generated.

'If we do not know enough about the network and how it works, we grope a bit in the dark when it comes to treatment. Conversely, once we gain insight into the principles behind the distribution of the network, and which cell types are important, we can better put the treatment of neurological disorders on the right track', says Rune W. Berg.

Amongst others, he emphasises neurological disorders such as ALS as well as spinal cord injuries, for example from traffic accidents, as areas where increased knowledge about the spinal nervous system can lead to advances in treatment in the long term.

Likewise, new insights from basic research into the neurons of the spinal cord may benefit other parts of the neurology, for example in connection with cot death, which is associated with defects in brainstem activity.

Now, the next step for the research group is to continue the mapping of the scattered neurological network with optical measurements that allow them to track the activity simultaneously over a larger area.

For 400 years people have tracked sunspots, the dark patches that appear for weeks at a time on the sun's surface. They have observed but been unable to explain why the number of spots peaks every 11 years.

A University of Washington study published this month in the journal Physics of Plasmas proposes a model of plasma motion that would explain the 11-year sunspot cycle and several other previously mysterious properties of the sun.

"Our model is completely different from a normal picture of the sun," said first author Thomas Jarboe, a UW professor of aeronautics and astronautics. "I really think we're the first people that are telling you the nature and source of solar magnetic phenomena -- how the sun works."

The authors created a model based on their previous work with fusion energy research. The model shows that a thin layer beneath the sun's surface is key to many of the features we see from Earth, like sunspots, magnetic reversals and solar flow, and is backed up by comparisons with observations of the sun.

"The observational data are key to confirming our picture of how the sun functions," Jarboe said.

In the new model, a thin layer of magnetic flux and plasma, or free-floating electrons, moves at different speeds on different parts of the sun. The difference in speed between the flows creates twists of magnetism, known as magnetic helicity, that are similar to what happens in some fusion reactor concepts.

"Every 11 years, the sun grows this layer until it's too big to be stable, and then it sloughs off," Jarboe said. Its departure exposes the lower layer of plasma moving in the opposite direction with a flipped magnetic field.

When the circuits in both hemispheres are moving at the same speed, more sunspots appear. When the circuits are different speeds, there is less sunspot activity. That mismatch, Jarboe says, may have happened during the decades of little sunspot activity known as the "Maunder Minimum."

"If the two hemispheres rotate at different speeds, then the sunspots near the equator won't match up, and the whole thing will die," Jarboe said.

"Scientists had thought that a sunspot was generated down at 30 percent of the depth of the sun, and then came up in a twisted rope of plasma that pops out," Jarboe said. Instead, his model shows that the sunspots are in the "supergranules" that form within the thin, subsurface layer of plasma that the study calculates to be roughly 100 to 300 miles (150 to 450 kilometers) thick, or a fraction of the sun's 430,000-mile radius.

"The sunspot is an amazing thing. There's nothing there, and then all of a sudden, you see it in a flash," Jarboe said.

The group's previous research has focused on fusion power reactors, which use very high temperatures similar to those inside the sun to separate hydrogen nuclei from their electrons. In both the sun and in fusion reactors the nuclei of two hydrogen atoms fuse together, releasing huge amounts of energy.

The type of reactor Jarboe has focused on, a spheromak, contains the electron plasma within a sphere that causes it to self-organize into certain patterns. When Jarboe began to consider the sun, he saw similarities, and created a model for what might be happening in the celestial body.

"For 100 years people have been researching this," Jarboe said. "Many of the features we're seeing are below the resolution of the models, so we can only find them in calculations."

Other properties explained by the theory, he said, include flow inside the sun, the twisting action that leads to sunspots and the total magnetic structure of the sun. The paper is likely to provoke intense discussion, Jarboe said.

"My hope is that scientists will look at their data in a new light, and the researchers who worked their whole lives to gather that data will have a new tool to understand what it all means," he said.

The first extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strains of Salmonella typhimurium, a pathogen which is responsible for millions of bloodstream infections per year in sub-Saharan Africa, have been identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Drug-resistance has increased in successive groups of S. typhimurium over time. These new strains are resistant to all but one of the commonly available drugs in the DRC, with one sample showing reduced susceptibility to this final antibiotic.

The study, published today (19 September 2019) in Nature Communications, was conducted by researchers from the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) in Antwerp, the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB) in the DRC, the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the University of Cambridge and their collaborators. The findings suggest that S. typhimurium has evolved in sub-Saharan Africa in the past decades and continues to do so. A multifaceted approach will be needed to track and control the spread of XDR Salmonella, including further microbiological and genomic surveillance.

Most Salmonella infections result in symptoms associated with food poisoning. While unpleasant, symptoms are not life-threatening in the vast majority of cases. But in sub-Saharan Africa, Salmonella such as S. typhimurium can cause infections of the blood, known as invasive non-typhoidal Salmonella (iNTS) infections.

Every year, iNTS infections are estimated to affect 3.4 million people and result in 681,316 deaths globally*, of which the majority are caused by S. typhimurium. The containment and treatment of iNTS infections in places like the DRC is complicated by limited access to healthcare, infrastructure challenges and weakened immunity, with children under five years of age particularly at risk.

It is known that iNTS infections in sub-Saharan Africa are dominated by a type of S. typhimurium known as ST313, which is associated with antibiotic resistance. Two groups of ST313 (named lineage I and II) split off independently and subsequently spread over the African continent. Antibiotic resistance has been growing over time, with lineage II now the primary cause of iNTS infections.

Now a global research partnership is working to understand how Salmonella ST313 continues to evolve and develop drug resistance. Working on blood samples collected in DRC hospitals from people with suspected bloodstream infections, researchers from the INRB and ITM observed antibiotic resistance levels never seen before in S. typhimurium causing bloodstream infections, including resistance to the antibiotic azithromycin - a drug normally held in reserve in case others prove ineffective**.

To better understand these findings these strains were genome sequenced and analysed, including bioinformatics analyses and laboratory experiments at ITM and the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and machine learning analyses at the Centre for Genomic Pathogen Surveillance (CGPS). Analysis of these S. typhimurium genomes identified a new sub-group that is branching off from ST313, named lineage II.1. Estimated to have emerged in 2004, this new group exhibits extensive drug resistance (XDR).

Dr Sandra Van Puyvelde, first author of the study from the Institute of Tropical Medicine and Visiting Scientist at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "All antibiotic resistance genes contributing to 'XDR' are present on the same plasmid. This is worrying because a plasmid is a mobile genetic element that could be transferred to other bacteria. While accumulating more antibiotic resistance, we discovered that the novel Salmonella typhimurium line is also showing further genetic and behavioural changes which suggest ongoing evolution of the bacteria towards bloodstream infections."

The researchers also studied the way S. typhimurium is adapting to an invasive 'lifestyle', moving away from the forms of Salmonella that cause gastrointestinal illness towards the types that cause dangerous invasive bloodstream infections in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to lab experiments, the samples were tested with a machine learning algorithm designed to look for characteristic patterns in the DNA of Salmonella that indicate the potential to cause dangerous invasive infections.

Dr Nicole Wheeler, a bioinformatician at the Centre for Genomic Pathogen Surveillance, based at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "In the lab we've observed changes in this new group of Salmonella typhimurium that we've seen in other invasive salmonella. What's interesting as a bioinformatician is that we've been able to pick up these changes using machine learning. The hope is that in the near future we'll be able to deploy machine learning in a more predictive role to help control the emergence and spread of drug-resistant strains of bacteria such as S. typhimurium."

INRB and ITM have established bloodstream infection surveillance in the past ten years which has been pivotal in the early detection of the XDR S. typhimurium.

Professor Octavie Lunguya of INRB in the DRC, said: "We isolated the Salmonella typhimurium from patients in hospitals across the Democratic Republic of Congo during our bloodstream infection surveillance activities. It is now crucial that we closely monitor the bacteria and their progression."

Professor Gordon Dougan, from the University of Cambridge, said: "Studies like this are unique as we are making the bridge between the most important health issues observed in hospitals across the world with in-depth biological research for which we apply cutting edge technologies. Collaborations like this are key and will be important in the future to gain further insights on emerging diseases."

Scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed a technique to observe how radiation damages molecules over time-frames of just one quadrillionth of a second - or a femtosecond.

The technique involves dissolving organic molecules in water to simulate the state molecules are found in biological tissue. This allows the research team to see radiation damage occur in biological tissue and molecules with greater precision and clarity than ever before.

Nuclear or "ionising" radiation can damage our bodies by altering DNA and other biological molecules as it disintegrates the chemical bonds holding molecules together.

Using their new technique, the scientists watched the vibrations generated by collisions of ionising radiation particles with an organic molecule, which eventually caused it to break apart after undergoing violent stretching, bending, and twisting motions. These vibrations only occurred when the molecules were dissolved in water, which represents a significant advance on previous studies.

Associate Professor Zhi-Heng Loh, an Assistant Chair at NTU's School of Physical & Mathematical Sciences who led the research, said, "This is the first time anyone has observed ionisation-induced molecular dynamics in aqueous solutions on femtosecond time scales. In previous studies, scientists were only able to observe the products of ionisation after the molecule had already been broken apart."

Although the hazards of radiation have been widely recognised since the 1930s, when Marie Curie died from anaemia caused by her long-term exposure to radioactivity, the exact processes by which ionising radiation alters molecules are still not completely understood.

The study used methods from femtochemistry, to capture how atoms and molecules behave at ultra-short time scales, as in the formation or breaking of chemical bonds that take a few quadrillionths of a second, or femtoseconds.

Femtochemistry uses lasers that emit extremely brief pulses of light and each pulse creates a snapshot of the chemical reaction. These can then be stitched together like the frames of a video, to watch ultra-fast chemical processes from start to end.

Uncovering how radiation alters molecules

Assoc Prof Loh and his team set out to understand how ionising radiation affects biological molecules. As a starting point, they focused their attention on the phenoxide ion, a relatively simple organic molecule that contains many of the same types of chemical bonds that are found in the proteins that make up living tissue.

High-resolution spectroscopy had previously been used to study phenoxide in its gaseous form, and from it researchers had observed a relatively simple behaviour: when struck by ionising radiation, each phenoxide molecule vibrates at a single frequency, like a bell ringing in a single clear tone. However, this method could not be used to study organic molecules dissolved in water, which is similar to the state molecules are found in biological tissue.

Using a pulsed-laser apparatus, the NTU team was able to record how radiation damages phenoxide molecules dissolved in water. The team identified multiple vibrational frequencies, distinct from the single frequency observed in gaseous phenoxide. They discovered that when radiation causes the molecules to eject an electron, the molecule vibrates in a highly complex pattern, more akin to the sound of a cymbal or gong than a ringing bell.

"In the future, we will build on this to investigate how radiation affects larger and more complicated molecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids, which are the building blocks of life," said Assoc Prof Loh.

"Our research group specialises in femtochemistry, and once we got interested in the topic, it turned out to be relatively simple to adapt our femtochemistry methods to studying the vibrational motion of ionised molecules dissolved in water. To our surprise, no one had ever tackled this particular problem before," he added.

Most people consider the hedgehog a welcome guest in the garden. But a newly published study reveals that the Danish hedgehogs carry a secret.

The results have been published in PLOS ONE.

The research was part of a PhD project called "The Danish Hedgehog Project" intending to describe the state of the Danish hedgehog population.

The project was based on citizen science, and former PhD student, Dr Sophie Lund Rasmussen, asked the Danish citizens to collect dead hedgehogs for her research in order to use the dead to understand the living.

During 2016, volunteers collected an astonishing 697 dead hedgehogs originating from all over Denmark.

Nasal swabs were obtained from 188 dead hedgehogs to determine the occurrence of MRSA.

Additionally, 16 hedgehog rehabilitators were tested for potential zoonotic transmission of MRSA from hedgehogs to humans.

The results were surprising: close to twothirds (61%) of the hedgehogs carried the so-called mecC-MRSA. None of the hedgehog rehabilitators tested positive.

"Only 1-2% of all the MRSA incidences found in human patients in Denmark are caused by mecC-MRSA. The transfer of infection to humans is likely induced by pets and production animals, which have been known to carry mecC-MRSA occasionally. mecC-MRSA is easily treated with alternative types of antibiotics and predominantly causes superficial skin infections like other types of Staphylococcus aureus", says Head of the National Reference Laboratory for Antimicrobial Resistance at Statens Serum Institut, Anders Rhod Larsen.

"The detection of mecC-MRSA in hedgehogs should therefore not change our positive attitude towards hedgehogs visiting our gardens", he continues.

They have carried mecC-MRSA for decades

mecC-MRSA have previously been detected in Swedish hedgehogs, but also in a range of other species of wildlife and production animals. It is, however, striking that the prevalence of mecC-MRSA in hedgehogs is remarkably higher compared to other animal species.

"This study is particularly interesting because a high sample size of hedgehogs with a geographical representation of a whole country, have been tested. Such a comprehensive study of MRSA in one particular species of wildlife, has never been produced before. Hedgehogs, and other species of wildlife, have likely carried mecC-MRSA for decades. But it is not until recently that scientists have begun to discover the extent of this colonization. This basically means that there is no reason to fear the spread of MRSA if your garden is visited by hedgehogs. Just as long as you make sure to wash your hands, as always, if you come into physical contact with a hedgehog or another species of wildlife", says Dr Sophie Lund Rasmussen.

It remains to be seen whether the same prevalence of mecC-MRSA can be found in British hedgehogs, but a study by Professor Mark Holmes and colleagues from Cambridge University is underway.

Antimicrobial resistance can evolve naturally in the wild

The research also shows that antimicrobial resistance is evolving in the wild independently of our consumption of antibiotics.

"Antibiotics are defence compounds produced by bacteria and fungi for the purpose of protecting themselves against other bacteria. It is likely an interaction between a certain ringworm species and the Staphylococci that has caused the hedgehogs to become natural reservoirs of MRSA", says Dr Anders Rhod Larsen.

CITATIONS

"The most important message is, that there is no reason to fear to contract MRSA just because you have a hedgehog in your garden. They have likely carried MRSA for years, but we simply haven't discovered it until now. So nothing has changed for the hedgehogs. We found no evidence for spread of MRSA from hedgehogs to hedgehog rehabilitators who come into close contact with hedgehogs. There is nothing to fear as long as you keep a good hygienic standard, as always, and wash your hands after touching a hedgehog or any other wildlife species."
(Sophie Lund Rasmussen)

"Hedgehogs are protected by Danish law, and the last thing we want is for people to start chasing hedgehogs out of their gardens because they are afraid to contract MRSA. That would be completely irrational. Hedgehogs are fascinating, lovely creatures. Just consider how they have carried this secret for years whilst snuffling around in the garden."
(Sophie Lund Rasmussen)

The BBVA Foundation has presented the first module of its European Values Survey 2019, examining a broad set of values and attitudes held by the adult population of five European countries (Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain) in both the public (politics, economics, the media, trust) and private (religion, ethics, science, environment) domains. This press release refers exclusively to the public sphere.

The aim of the study is to capture a broad set of preferences, values and beliefs that inform individual conduct in multiple facets of public and private life, and to examine how these conducts interrelate in the two domains.

Values operate as a kind of "cognitive, normative and emotional GPS" that helps individuals navigate their way around complex issues and situations on which they have limited information, aiding them in their decision-making. They help identify what is "good" (valuable) and "right" (which kind of individual and institutional behaviors are obligatory, permitted or "forbidden").

The map of cultural "intangibles" - values and attitudes - of the adult population is fairly stable in its main contours, but may be affected or modified as a result of exceptional events (crises) or the emergence of new information of singular importance, visibility and reach. On the individual plane, the universe of internalized values will hold out strongly against any attempt at change based on persuasion or propaganda. And any wholesale shift in public values and attitudes will tend to unfold only slowly, the product of fragmentary and cumulative processes.

The comparative analysis of these values and attitudes conducted in the study identifies commonalities and differences both across and within the five societies by reference to sociodemographic and cultural factors: age, sex, educational level and declared political orientation. The results reflect cross-country commonalities expressive of Europeans' political culture, as well as divergences around certain values, attitudes and perceptions, and models of engagement with the public sphere.

Main findings

Declared political orientation is a general matrix that captures a major strand of individuals' social worldview and influences perceptions, attitudes and behaviors in the private and, especially, the public sphere. A majority of Spaniards define themselves as center left, with the furthest left segment doubling in size that of all other countries analyzed.

Europeans express an interest in politics in the medium-low interval, while both public participation and following of the news are relatively low-key. This stands in contrast to their high expectations regarding the role and functions of the state, which extend beyond classic welfare state services to the control of market variables like prices, wages and corporate profits.

Spain stands apart on this score in opting, by a small margin, for income equality even among those with differing levels of qualifications.

Regarding economic policy options, a majority in all countries would favor spending cuts rather than risking an imbalance in public accounts. In Spain, this view also finds support among those identifying as on the left (58%), albeit at some distance form those declaredly in the center (71%) and, above all, on the right (82%).

In all countries, there is a prevailing current of trust in leading institutions and a large number of professional groups, most prominently doctors, teachers, scientists and engineers.

This trust also extends to professionals linked to the public administration - police officers, judges, the military and government employees - but not to the political elites running the administrative apparatus.

Citizens perceive high or very high levels of corruption in their countries, a view especially accentuated in the cases of Spain and Italy. At the other extreme is Germany, where this perception is weak.

Europeans choose to stick with conventional media, principally television, to keep themselves informed of current events. The exception here is young people in the 18 to 24 age group, who turn preferably to social networks.

The majority of citizens express a strong sense of identification and pride of belonging with regard to their own nation-state and its symbols, and clearly recognize the value of the rule of law as a pillar of democracy and core component of civic coexistence.

European Union membership is seen by most citizens as being beneficial for their country. This is especially so in Spain and even, significantly, in a country like the United Kingdom with Brexit in full flow.

Of the factors that weigh in their voting decisions, Spaniards single out the party's program and ideology ahead of professional competences in general, except for ability to manage the economy, which ranks high in their priorities.

Climate change, terrorism, a cyber attack and immigration are viewed as serious problems for the country, with scores in Spain ranging from 8.6 for climate change to 6.7 for immigration.

Technical notes

The BBVA Foundation's European Values Study examines a broad set of values and attitudes held by the adult population of five European countries: Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain. Empirical information was gathered through a survey of a representative sample of 1,500 people aged 18 and over in each of the European Union's top five most populated countries.

The fieldwork was conducted by Ipsos between April and July 2019. The design of the questionnaire and analysis of the survey data were the work of the BBVA Foundation Department of Social Studies and Public Opinion.

The full study can be downloaded here: https://www.fbbva.es/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Presentation_European_Values_Study_2019.pdf

A complicated metabolic syndrome called cachexia is a type of cancer-related muscle wasting disease that can be deadly. The name comes from the Greek words for "bad condition", which is quite descriptive of the health state of patients after a tumor has triggered muscle atrophy in their bodies over a long period.

"The tumor may be in a completely different place than where the affected muscle cells are," says Geir Bjørkøy, a professor at NTNU's Department of Biomedical Laboratory Science, in the Faculty of Natural Sciences.

"A small tumor hidden in your lungs or pancreas can cause your muscles to shrink and weaken. You may feel fatigue, shortness of breath or your tolerance to exercise may be impaired because your heart function may be reduced," says Kristine Pettersen, a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre of Molecular Inflammation Research (CEMIR) at NTNU.

Senior engineer Sonja Andersen at NTNU's Department of Biomedical Laboratory Science says, "The distance from the tumor to the affected area means that there must be a connection between the tumour and the damaged muscle cells. One or more physical substances from the tumor have to be causing the muscle cells to self-degrade beyond what's normal."

Now, a research group at NTNU and several partners have identified a possible mechanism for how cancer cells may be sending these messages to the muscle cells. Their exciting results have just been published in the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle (JCSM).

Cachexia almost behaves like a disease of its own, in addition to the cancer itself. When you lose muscle mass, you not only become weaker, but your ability to tolerate the harsh side effects of cancer treatment is reduced as well. This may limit treatment options, and cachexia is associated with increased mortality rate.

People with cachexia may suffer drastic weight loss, and increased nutrient intake alone cannot compensate for it. Patients often feel both tired and nauseated.

Cachexia and not the cancer itself is the probable cause of about one in three cancer-related deaths. Currently, there is no effective treatment for cachexia.

Since the cancer cells must be secreting some signal that triggers the muscle wasting, researchers are investigating two different signalling factors.

The main suspects have been activin A and interleukin 6 (IL-6). Some studies indicate that activin A must be the central factor, while others suggest that IL-6 is a key signalling factor from the tumor that causes the loss of muscle tissue.

"Previously, we have shown that IL-6 can increase the wasting process in muscle cells and consequently may be important for the development of cachexia," says Pettersen.

But who is right? Those who blame activin A, or those who think IL-6 is the most important?

Bjørkøy says, "It turns out to be both. Activin A and IL-6 are both key signalling factors and functionally linked."

Here's the short version of what is going on:

1. First, the cancer cells produce the signalling factor activin A, which they secrete. Activin A can then have an effect on these same cancer cells through receptors on their surface that bind this signalling substance.

2. When activin A is bound and activates the surface receptor on the cancer cells, these cells start producing large amounts of the signalling factor IL-6, which is then released.

3. IL-6 works in several different ways, one of which is that it binds to muscle cells and instructs them to break down cell content.

So why do the cancer cells do this? Actually, they are merely increasing the speed of a process that's already happening. The cancer cells need the nutrients that are made available when the muscle cells break down proteins. In effect, the cancer cells abuse a fundamental mechanism that already exist in our cells and tissues.

When regulated, this breakdown is a completely normal process. The cells in the body degrade and build up cellular components all the time. This is important to keep all our cells functioning.

All the cells in our body contain lots of tiny organelles (cellular structures with specific functions) with digestive enzymes. These organelles, called lysosomes, absorb and degrade cellular components in a process called "autophagy," meaning "self-eating".

"Autophagy is important for all cells and is used to remove damaged or redundant cell contents," says Pettersen. "The process can also increase during periods where food is scarce."

"Autophagy releases amino acids, fats and sugars from the degraded cellular components to provide building blocks for new biomolecules or for cellular energy production. In this way, autophagy is an important mechanism for surviving starvation in the cells of all organisms - from fungi to mammals," she said.

Thus, the building blocks that make up our cells are broken down and can be released from the cells generating them and used by other cells in new places where they are needed next.

Our muscle cells are able to adjust the amount of certain proteins without compromising cell function. When some of these muscle proteins are degraded, amino acids are released that muscle cells either can use themselves or can release into the blood for the benefit of other cells in the body. For example, we can usually tolerate a slight reduction in muscle proteins in our arms or legs, especially if it helps our heart and lungs to function properly.

Andersen points out that cancer cells only cause a slight increase in autophagy. However, this small change in the overall balance is sufficient to cause a slight increase in muscle wasting that results in the loss of muscle mass over time.

Removing the tumor in patients with cachexia also reverses the cachexia, and muscle mass can return to normal.

Unfortunately, not all tumours can be removed by current treatments, either because the cancer has spread, the tumour is inaccessible or because the cancer treatment is not effective.

The research group at NTNU has shown that preventing the cancer cells from producing activin A or preventing activin A from binding to the receptor on the cancer cells restricts the production of IL-6 and reduces the cancer cells' ability to increase autophagy in other cells.

In cancerous mice, this has prevented them from developing cachexia, Pettersen says.

"However, we lack formal evidence to verify if the same mechanism operates similarly in humans. In patients, the picture may be more complicated even if we know that both signalling compounds that have been studied can be elevated in blood samples from cancer patients," she said.

"Other signalling factors and processes may also be involved in stimulating the increased autophagy of muscle cells, and all types of cancer that cause cachexia may not use the same signalling factors," Bjørkøy says.

"It's also conceivable that there are differences between individual patients, even though they initially have the same type of cancer," says Andersen.

Pettersen notes that although the researchers believe the two signalling factors they have functionally linked to each other are often involved in cancer cachexia in patients, it is important to continue the search for other signalling candidates as well.

This research has helped to shed light on the cachexia puzzle and confirmed a link between two important signalling factors, but further research is needed to obtain a more complete picture. The hope is to find out if the typical cancers that cause cachexia - such as lung, pancreatic and intestinal cancers - use distinct or shared mechanisms to trigger muscle loss.

The goal is to develop tests that can measure the amount or activity of the relevant signalling substances, in order to provide patients with tailor-made treatments to block muscle wasting.

Documented cases already exist showing that individual patients with cachexia have greatly benefited from a drug that reduces the efficacy of IL-6. This drug is currently used to treat rheumatism. International researchers are now planning a clinical trial of the same drug in cancer patients with cachexia.

"So there's reason to be optimistic that we'll soon have biological drugs that can restrain this serious complication of cancer," says Bjørkøy.

Nevertheless, it will take some time before researchers can clarify how this will work in patients and how many patients can be helped with the drug that is currently being tested.

The new findings are the result of many years' work. Professor Bjørkøy says the project at NTNU has been going on for ten years, but that the ideas about this form of muscle wasting and the processes behind cancer cachexia have been around far longer.

The research group has worked closely with NTNU's Department of Biomedical Laboratory Science, the Centre for Molecular Inflammation Research (CEMIR) at NTNU and the biotechnology company Novartis in Switzerland.

Novartis' interest in the project revolves around expanding the knowledge about the disease mechanism and its potential to open up novel approaches to cachexia treatment methods.