Tech

Public health agencies worldwide have identified antibiotic resistance of disease-causing bacteria as one of humanity's most critical challenges. However, scientists haven't discovered a new class of antibiotics in more than 30 years. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Infectious Diseases have uncovered the hidden antibiotic potential of a non-psychoactive cannabis compound called cannabigerol (CBG), which helped control methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections in mice.

For centuries, cannabis plants have been used in folk medicine. Today, scientists are only beginning to investigate whether different cannabis compounds could be used to treat a variety of diseases. Early studies have shown that some cannabinoids can slow the growth of gram-positive bacteria, such as S. aureus, but not gram-negative bacteria, such as E. coli. Eric Brown and colleagues wanted to test the antibacterial properties of several cannabinoids against both MRSA and gram-negative bacteria.

The researchers tested the antibacterial activity of 18 cannabis-derived molecules, including cannabidiol (CBD), tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and CBG, against MRSA. They also tested the ability of these substances to prevent the formation of biofilms on surfaces and to kill dormant "persistor" MRSA that are highly resistant to antibiotics. CBG performed the best in these tests, so the researchers chose to study it further. When they treated MRSA-infected mice with CBG, the compound worked as well as vancomycin, a powerful antibiotic. The researchers discovered that CBG targets the cell membrane of gram-positive bacteria, and by itself, it is not effective against gram-negative bacteria, which have an additional outer membrane. However, they found that if they gave CBG with another drug that pokes holes in this outer membrane, CBG could reach the inner membrane and kill gram-negative bacteria.

Hershey, Pa. -- On February 6, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began to enforce a previously-issued policy on unauthorized flavored cartridge-based e-cigarette products with the goal of addressing the current epidemic of youth use of e-cigarettes. A new study by researchers at Penn State finds that adults enjoy sweet e-cigarette flavors just as much as teens, suggesting that the policy may have consequences for adults too.

The researchers studied changes in flavor preference in a group of long-term, adult e-cigarette users and found that, over time, preference for the traditional tobacco, menthol and mint flavors decreased, while preference for chocolate, candy and other sweet flavors increased.

"Our data show that flavors aren't just popular with the youth, but with adults as well," said Ping Du, first author of the study published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society and associate professor of medicine and public health sciences at Penn State College of Medicine. "Many of the participants in our study indicated that they used e-cigarettes as a means to quit smoking or avoid relapse, and these flavors may be part of the reason why they end up using e-cigarettes in the long-term."

The researchers analyzed responses from 383 adult participants between the ages of 22 and 75 who completed an online e-cigarette survey between 2012 and 2014 and a follow-up survey between 2017 and 2019. In both surveys, participants were asked to name their preferred liquid flavor.

Preference for fruit flavors remained stable while preference for tobacco, menthol or mint decreased over time from 40 percent at baseline to 22 percent at follow up. Preference for chocolate or candy and other sweet flavors was most noticeable in younger adults 18 to 45 years old and increased from 16 percent at baseline to 29 percent at follow up.

In the follow up survey, the participants were asked to describe their anticipated reactions in regards to potential FDA regulations. About 50 percent indicated they would find a way to buy their preferred flavor or add flavoring agents themselves if their preferred, non-tobacco flavors were banned.

Jonathan Foulds, professor of public health sciences at the College of Medicine, indicated that most of the participants in this study used tank-based electronic cigarettes and these e-cigarette users can continue to purchase flavored e-liquids in bottles from vape shops. Consumers may also still be able to access flavors through disposable vapes. However, it is unclear if many of those products will remain available after May 12 -- the deadline for manufacturers to submit premarket applications to the FDA in order to remain on the market.

According to Foulds and Du, members of the Penn State Cancer Institute, restrictions on all non-tobacco e-cigarette flavors could help prevent non-users - especially adolescents or youth - from initiating e-cigarette use. Yet, a variety of resources are available to teens and adults who want to obtain flavors that range from online videos demonstrating how to add flavors or make your own liquids to social media networks and websites that make it easier for people to obtain unregulated products off the streets or from foreign countries.

"Unauthorized flavor additions or buying products off the streets is dangerous for personal health since we don't know what the chemicals are in those products," Du said.

About 10 percent of respondents indicated that if their preferred flavor was banned, they'd consider going back to smoking. Du said that the results of the study may help clinicians and researchers address the concern that many long-term users state an intention to seek illicit flavor sources if their flavor was banned, which may cause unforeseen health problems.

"We don't know what the long-term effects of this new policy will be, but the evidence we've collected says that adult, long term e-cigarette users with a preference for sweeter flavors may face health risks trying to obtain or make their preferred flavors."

Many satellites are in space to take photos. But a vibrating satellite, like a camera in shaky hands, can't get a sharp image. Pointing it at a precise location to take a photo or perform another task, is another important function that requires accuracy. Vedant, an aerospace engineering doctoral student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was working on a way to eliminate vibrations on a satellite when he discovered his invention could also rotate the satellite.

"We developed, with NASA"s Jet Propulsion Lab, a way to cancel out the vibrations of a satellite by vibrating the solar panels in the opposite direction--active noise cancellation," Vedant said. "After developing a mathematical model and using random inputs, I realized I could make the satellite move away from the original resting point, which was unexpected. On further analysis, I discovered that a new capability existed in the system--in addition to the vibration isolation, it can actually rotate the satellite in space arbitrarily."

Vedant explained that in space, you only have the capabilities of throwing masses around, using only the satellite's internal forces to move. He likened the controlled movements of the satellite's solar panels to the movements a cat makes when falling to land on its feet--twisting its body by stretching out its legs, then pulling them in tightly.

"The solar panels are long and flexible," Vedant said. "If you swing one down, it will rotate your spacecraft by a small amount of angle. When you contract it, that shouldn't change the angle at all, because that's just a contraction. But, I'm also changing the length of the solar panel--that changes the moment of inertia, which moves it back a slightly different amount. And if you do this repeatedly, you can then begin adding these angles. That's what's new about this multifunctional structures for attitude control."

Vedant described how he first recognized the potential to rotate the satellite. For the original project with JPL, there was an outreach component so Vedant created a game for STEM students to play.

"I mapped it to the keyboard keys, so that each key made it oscillate in one direction," he said. "I was pressing random keys to see if the system works or not and it did something very unusual. It stopped shaking, but instead of moving back to its original position, it moved to a different place and stopped. I thought that was a mathematical error. So I dug more into it. And it turned out to be a new way of moving the panel."

Vedant said U of I has obtained a patent on his invention. Since it went public in early February, there has been a surge of interest in it from companies that design, build, and launch satellites.

He created a video of the prototype, which was made from a 3D printer.

"My next effort is to make something that is that is more realistic and can fly in space," Vedant said. "We'll also be looking at ways to integrate the electronics into the solar panels, to save on the volume and weight."

February 26, 2020 - Rates of diagnosed attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in veterans receiving care in the VA health system more than doubled during the past decade, reports a study in the March issue of Medical Care. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

ADHD has been diagnosed in nearly one percent of patients making VA primary care or mental health visits, while the rate of new diagnoses has increased steadily in recent years, according to the research by Andrew C. Hale, PhD, of the VA Center for Clinical Management Research and colleagues at University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor. They write, "Overall increases and demographic differences in adult veterans diagnosed with ADHD suggest a growing need to establish the reliability of diagnostic practices to ensure appropriate and equitable care."

More Diagnosed Cases of ADHD in Veterans, with Changing Patient Characteristics

The researchers analyzed trends in ADHD diagnosed in a national sample of veterans receiving care from 2009 to 2016. During that time, an average of more than five million VA patients were seen at a primary care or mental health clinic each year. The prevalence (overall number of cases) and incidence (number of cases diagnosed per year) of ADHD were analyzed, along with trends in demographic factors and concomitant mental health issues.

The number of VA patients diagnosed with ADHD increased from approximately 6,500 in 2009 to 30,000 in 2016, for a total of more than 96,000 new cases. With adjustment for age, the annual prevalence of ADHD increased from 0.23 to 0.84 percent. The incidence of ADHD increased from 0.14 to 0.48 percent.

"The age-adjusted prevalence of ADHD in a sample of veterans using primary care or mental health clinic services more than doubled over the eight-year period from [2009 to 2016]," Dr. Hale and coauthors write. They note that the figures are similar to increases in population trends in US youths and adults during the same period.

The increases in ADHD were lowest for black veterans and older veterans. However, rates of ADHD diagnosis increased in all demographic subgroups. The prevalence of ADHD was highest - over four percent in 2016 - in veterans aged 18 to 29 years. Both prevalence and incidence of ADHD were greater in women compared to men.

Although numbers of accompanying mental health diagnoses associated with ADHD remained about the same, the patterns of these conditions changed - including an increase in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Despite the rising rates of ADHD diagnosis, the proportion of veterans with neuropsychological evaluations within six months of a new diagnosis decreased from 12.6 to 10.8 percent.

While the prevalence of ADHD in US children is known to have increased, trends in ADHD diagnosis among adults are unclear. In adults, ADHD is linked to increased rates of psychiatric disorders along with problems with relationship and at work or in school. Based on data in active-duty service members, veterans might be at increased risk of ADHD.

The new study shows significant increases in rates of diagnosed ADHD among veterans in the VA health system over the past decade. Dr. Hale and colleagues suggest that several factors may have contributed to these trends, including changing diagnostic criteria, changes in the characteristics of the VA patient population, and increases in conditions that may have overlapping symptoms with ADHD, such as PTSD and traumatic brain injury.

Although diagnoses of ADHD in the VA system have increased across the board, some groups have higher rates, such as younger veterans and women; while others have lower rates, including black veterans. The shifting trends in associated mental health issues raises concerns as to whether these problems are being accurately recognized and treated. Dr. Hale and colleagues conclude: "Systematic approaches to screening and evaluation, including potentially greater use of neuropsychological evaluations, should be explored to improve the reliability of diagnostic practices across patient subgroups and over time and to ensure appropriate treatment."

Since incidents at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, many countries have switched from nuclear power to electricity production fired by fossil fuels, despite the environmental consequences of burning fuels such as coal. A new study used data from the United States to analyze the costs and benefits of electricity production from coal-fired versus nuclear sources. The study's authors conclude that policymakers should look at nuclear power as a low-carbon electricity source, but that utilities will need to have incentives to do so.

The study, by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and the IZA Institute of Labor Economics, appears in Resource and Energy Economics.

"By calculating the economic and environmental costs associated with producing electricity using coal-fired power plants rather than nuclear sources, our study informs the ongoing policy debate about whether to subsidize existing nuclear power generation," explains Akshaya Jha, assistant professor of economics and public policy at CMU's Heinz College, who coauthored the study.

Researchers used monthly operations data from the Energy Information Administration on nearly every power plant in the United States from 1970 to 2014 to estimate the extent to which the buildout of nuclear power replaced fossil fuel-fired electricity generation. They also estimated the extent to which fossil-fuel power generation increased during unplanned nuclear outages from 1999 to 2014, and they explored why a declining share of U.S. electricity generation came from nuclear sources despite the fact that using conventional fossil fuels resulted in significant increases in air pollution.

The installation of nuclear plants led to an average reduction in monthly coal-fired generation of approximately 200 GWh (gigawatt hours, a unit of energy representing a billion watt hours) in the first year. Solely by displacing the generation of coal-fired electricity, the average opening of a nuclear plant resulted in nearly 2 million metric tons less in carbon dioxide emissions, 5,200 metric tons less of sulfur dioxide, and 2,200 metric tons less of nitrogen oxides in the first year, the researchers concluded.

The study also found that forced outages at nuclear plants led to an increase in monthly coal-fired generation of approximately 200 GWh. Changes due to increased use of natural gas or fuel oil (rather than coal) were neither statistically nor economically significant, the researchers found; this is likely because both nuclear and coal plants are designed to run continuously throughout the year while natural gas plants are more often intended to ramp production up or down quickly to respond to changes in demand.

The production costs per MWh of coal-fired versus nuclear power are similar: Although fuel prices are higher for coal versus nuclear, nuclear power is associated with higher nonfuel operations and maintenance costs. However, burning coal emits substantial quantities of global pollutants that increase climate risk and local pollutants that harm the health of exposed populations. The environmental costs of these emissions are substantial. Consequently, the costs associated with nuclear waste disposal or the expected costs of a nuclear accident (i.e., the probability of an accident multiplied by its costs) would have to be sizable to justify using coal-fired sources rather nuclear sources.

"Based on the results of our study, we think policymakers should consider the benefit of nuclear power generation as a low-carbon source of electricity," says Edson Severnini, assistant professor of economics and public policy at CMU's Heinz College, who coauthored the study. "But a substantial amount of regulatory pressure on fossil fuels--for example, in the form of an emissions tax or regional emissions standards--would be needed to provide an incentive for utilities to shift toward increased nuclear generation."

Some molecules, including most of the ones in living organisms, have shapes that can exist in two different mirror-image versions. The right- and left-handed versions can sometimes have different properties, such that only one of them carries out the molecule's functions. Now, a team of physicists has found that a similarly asymmetrical pattern can be induced and measured at will in certain exotic materials, using a special kind of light beam to stimulate the material.

In this case, the phenomenon of "handedness," known as chirality, occurs not in the structure of the molecules themselves, but in a kind of patterning in the density of electrons within the material. The researchers found that this asymmetric patterning can be induced by shining a circularly polarized mid-infrared light at an unusual material, a form of transition-metal dichalcogenide semimetal called TiSe2, or titanium diselenide.

The new findings, which could open up new areas of research in the optical control of quantum materials, are described today in the journal Nature in a paper by MIT postdocs Suyang Xu and Qiong Ma, professors Nuh Gedik and Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, and 15 colleagues at MIT and other universities in the U.S., China, Taiwan, Japan, and Singapore.

The team found that while titanium diselenide at room temperature has no chirality to it, as its temperature decreases it reaches a critical point where the balance of right-handed and left-handed electronic configurations gets thrown off and one type begins to dominate. They found that this effect could be controlled and enhanced by shining circularly polarized mid-infrared light at the material, and that the handedness of the light (whether the polarization rotates clockwise or counterclockwise) determines the chirality of the resulting patterning of electron distribution.

"It's an unconventional material, one that we don't fully understand," says Jarillo-Herrero. The material naturally structures itself into "loosely stacked two-dimensional layers on top of each other," sort of like a sheaf of papers, he says.

Within those layers, the distribution of electrons forms a "charge density wave function," a set of ripple-like stripes of alternating regions where the electrons are more densely or less densely packed. These stripes can then form helical patterns, like the structure of a DNA molecule or a spiral staircase, which twist either to the right or to the left.

Ordinarily, the material would contain equal amounts of the right- and left-handed versions of these charge density waves, and the effects of handedness would cancel out in most measurements. But under the influence of the polarized light, Ma says, "we found that we can make the material mostly prefer one of these chiralities. And then we can probe its chirality using another light beam." It's similar to the way a magnetic field can induce a magnetic orientation in a metal where ordinarily its molecules are randomly oriented and thus have no net magnetic effect.

But inducing such an effect in the chirality with light within a solid material is something "nobody ever did before," Gedik explains.

After inducing the particular directionality using the circularly polarized light, "we can detect what kind of chirality there is in the material from the direction of the optically generated electric current," Xu adds. Then, that direction can be switched to the other orientation if an oppositely polarized light source shines on the material.

Gedik says that although some previous experiments had suggested that such chiral phases were possible in this material, "there were conflicting experiments," so it had been unclear until now whether the effect was real. Though it's too early in this work to predict what practical applications such a system might have, the ability to control electronic behavior of a material with just a light beam, he says, could have significant potential.

While this study was carried out with one specific material, the researchers say the same principles may work with other materials as well. The material they used, titanium diselenide, is widely studied for potential uses in quantum devices, and further research on it may also offer insights into the behavior of superconducting materials.

Gedik says that this way of inducing changes in the electronic state of the material is a new tool that could potentially be applied more broadly. "This interaction with light is a phenomenon which will be very useful in other materials as well, not just chiral material, but I suspect in affecting other kinds of orders as well," he says.

And, while chirality is well-known and widespread in biological molecules and in some magnetic phenomena, "this is the first time we've shown that this is happening in the electronic properties of a solid," Jarillo-Herrero says.

February 26, 2020 - For women receiving breast implants during reconstructive or cosmetic breast surgery, scarring around the implant - called capsular contracture - is a common, costly, and painful complication. The anti-inflammatory effects of omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish oil, might help to avoid abnormal capsule formation suggests an experimental study in the March issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

Mice fed omega-3 fatty acids had reduced capsule formation occurrence around implants - likely due to reduced collagen deposits - according to the research by Giuseppe A.G. Lombardo, M.D.,Ph.D., of Cannizzaro Hospital in Catania, Italy and Serena Tamburino, MD, of Chi.Pla Plastic Surgery in Catania, Italy, and colleagues. "We believe that omega-3 supplement is a simple and promising method that could be used to prevent or at least reduce capsular contracture after silicone implant surgery," the researchers write.

When any foreign tissue is implanted, the body naturally develops connective tissue around it. But in capsular contracture, the tissue hardens into a shell that becomes thicker and firmer over time. This results in inflammation, pain, and sometimes dislocation or deformation of the implant. Repeat surgery is sometimes needed to remove the capsule and replace the implant.

"Past research on preventing capsular contracture has focused on reducing bacterial contamination using antibiotics," Dr. Tamburino comments. "Fewer studies have focused on controlling the inflammatory process, particularly the arachidonic acid cascade, the main pathway leading to inflammation."

Omega-3 fatty acids - found in oily fish, as well as fish oil supplements - play a major role in the arachidonic acid cascade. The researchers designed a study to see if omega-3 fatty acid supplementation affects capsule formation around implants in animals. Tiny silicone implants were surgically placed under the skin of anesthetized mice. One group of animals was regularly fed an omega-3 fatty acid supplement, while a control group received water.

After several weeks, capsule formation around the implants was compared between groups. The results showed reduced capsule formation in the group receiving omega-3 supplementation - the implants were thinner and more transparent than in the comparison group.

In addition, capsules from the omega-3-supplemented animals showed reduced expression of transforming growth factor (TGF) beta-2: a cell-activating protein (cytokine) that promotes inflammation. The reduction in TGF beta-2 expression was associated with decreased collagen deposits in the implant capsule.

Could fish oil help to prevent capsular contracture in women undergoing breast surgery using implants? It's too early to say - for one thing, for humans to take a level of omega-3 supplementation similar to that given to rats in the study "would be quite a dose," the researchers write.

"Moreover, we still don't know if this treatment would provide long-term benefit," Dr. Tamburino and coauthors add. "Further clinical studies are warranted to examine their therapeutic applicability and additional studies should be conducted to support our findings concerning the decrease in capsular contracture occurrence."

If someone asked you right now how stressed you are, what would you say? A little? A lot? You do not know?

Those are all valid responses, but they are not especially useful to researchers and medical professionals because they are subjective and not easily quantified. Nonetheless, in lieu of a better method of measuring stress, the common method for years has consisted of a stress questionnaire. The main alternative to the questionnaire, a blood test, can provide quantitative data but requires a trained professional to draw the blood, and the stress of the procedure itself--being poked with a large needle--can skew the results of a lot of people.

But something better might be right around the corner.

Wei Gao, assistant professor of medical engineering at Caltech, has produced a wireless sweat sensor that can accurately detect levels of cortisol, a natural compound that is commonly thought of as the body's stress hormone. In a new paper appearing in the journal Matter, Gao and his fellow researchers show how they designed and made the mass-producible device and how it works, and demonstrate that it is effective at detecting cortisol levels in near real time.

The development of an inexpensive and accurate device for measuring cortisol could allow for more widespread and easier monitoring of stress but also of other conditions including anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression--all of which are correlated with changes in cortisol levels.

The sensor Gao developed is prepared using a similar approach as another sweat sensor he recently created that can measure the level of uric acid in the bloodstream, which is useful for monitoring conditions like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or kidney disease. That sweat sensor, and the new one Gao and his team have created, are both made of graphene, a sheet-like form of carbon. A plastic sheet is etched with a laser to generate a 3D graphene structure with tiny pores in which sweat can be analyzed. Those pores create a large amount of surface area in the sensor, which makes it sensitive enough to detect compounds that are only present in very small amounts in sweat. In the new sensor, those tiny pores are coupled with an antibody, a type of immune system molecule, specifically sensitive to cortisol, thus allowing it to detect the compound.

The sensor was tested in two different ways. In one test, a volunteer's sweat was analyzed over a period of six days, and data representing cortisol levels were collected. In a healthy individual, cortisol levels rise and fall on a daily cycle. The levels peak just after an individual wakes up each morning and decline throughout the day, and that is exactly what the sensor detected.

Gao says this is the first demonstration of a sensor that can noninvasively monitor the daily fluctuation of cortisol, adding that monitoring the daily cortisol cycle of a patient could reveal the presence of mental health conditions.

"Depression patients have a different circadian pattern of cortisol than healthy individuals do," he says. "With PTSD patients, it's another different one."

In the other test, changes in cortisol levels were recorded as they occurred in response to an acute stressor. This was done through two experiments. In the first, test subjects were asked to perform aerobic exercises, because intense exercise is known to cause a strong increase in cortisol. In the second experiment, test subjects were asked to submerge their hands in ice water, a stressor sufficient to elicit cortisol release. In both experiments, the sensors detected rising cortisol levels right away.

"Our analysis time could be only a few minutes," Gao says. "Typically, a blood test takes at least one to two hours and requires stress-inducing blood draw. For stress monitoring, time is very important."

Though Gao's sensor may find many uses in typical medical applications here on Earth, it is also being vetted for potential off-world applications. In October, NASA announced that Gao is one of six researchers selected to participate in studies of the health of humans on deep-space missions. Gao will receive funding to develop the sensor technology into a system for monitoring the stress and anxiety of astronauts as part of the program, which is being administered by the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH).

"We aim to develop a wearable system that can collect multimodal data, including both vital sign and molecular biomarker information, to obtain the accurate classification for deep space stress and anxiety," Gao says.

A team of scientists at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has recently made an important discovery in identifying a set of potential vaccine targets for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, providing crucial leads for guiding experimental efforts towards the vaccine development against the novel pneumonia (COVID-19) caused by the virus.

Like SARS-CoV, which caused the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak in 2003, SARS-CoV-2 belongs to the same Betacoronavirus genus. By considering the genetic similarity between SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV, the team leveraged experimentally-determined immunological data to identify a set of SARS-CoV- derived B cell and T cell epitopes that exactly match to SARS-CoV-2. Epitopes are biomarkers recognized by the immune system to trigger actions against the virus. As no mutation has been observed in the identified epitopes among the available SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequences, immune targeting of these epitopes may potentially offer protection against the novel pneumonia COVID-19.

The team, led by data scientists Prof. Matthew McKay and Dr. Ahmed Abdul Quadeer, expected that their work can assist in guiding experimental research towards the development of effective vaccines against SARS- CoV-2.

Prof. McKay highlighted that "Despite similarities between SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, there is genetic variation between the two, and it is not obvious if epitopes that elicit an immune response against SARS-CoV will likely be effective against SARS-CoV-2. We found that only roughly 20% of the SARS-CoV epitopes map identically to SARS-CoV-2, and believe these are promising candidates."

"For the identified T cell epitopes, we also performed a population coverage analysis and determined a set of epitopes that is estimated to provide broad coverage globally as well as in China" said Dr. Quadeer. The estimated population coverage represents the percentage of individuals within the selected population that are likely to elicit an immune response to at least one epitope from the identified set.

Prof. McKay is a Professor in the Departments of Electronic & Computer Engineering and Chemical & Biological Engineering; Dr. Quadeer is a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Electronic & Computer Engineering. Their findings were recently published in the scientific journal Viruses this month.

"Our objective was to try to assist with the initial phase of vaccine development, by providing recommendations of specific epitopes that may potentially be considered for incorporation in vaccine designs" Prof. McKay added. "More generally, our work is part of a global effort seeking to capitalize on data for COVID-19, made available and rapidly shared by the scientific community, to understand this new virus and come up with effective interventions."

The beginning of 2020 has seen the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in mainland China, which has quickly spread to over 30 countries around the world, infecting over 80,000 people and causing over 2,600 deaths as of late February 2020.

A joint research group in Japan has succeeded in reproducing key ALS symptoms in a small tropical fish by remote controlling a disease-associated protein molecule using light illumination.

In amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease or motor neuron disease, nerve cells called motor neurons progressively degenerate. These motor neurons accumulate inclusions containing an aggregated form of TDP-43 protein.

In human body, motor neurons align along the spinal cord length and extend along the cables called axons to connect with muscles covering the body surface. This anatomical feature makes motor neurons one of the most difficult cells to observe. Consequently, we do not fully understand when and how healthy motor neurons begin to become abnormal and pathological in ALS.

In a study published last week in the journal Nature Communications, the authors devised a new TDP-43 variant by attaching human TDP-43 to a plant protein that forms protein aggregates upon absorption of blue light. This light-controlled or "optogenetic" TDP-43 functions normally as TDP-43 in the dark, but it gradually forms aggregates when illuminated by blue light. The authors focused on the motor neurons of zebrafish because they share several characteristics with human motor neurons. Whole cell can be visualized because of the transparent fish body (Figure). Employing their own original techniques, the authors expressed the optogenetic TDP-43 in zebrafish motor neurons and discovered that key ALS pathologies appeared when the fish were simply illuminated by blue light (Movie).

Unexpectedly, the connection between the motor neurons and muscles weakened even when light illumination was ceased and before the optogenetic TDP-43 was aggregated. This result suggests that motor neurons are already damaged before TDP-43 develops into typically large aggregates that are observed in the terminal phase of ALS.

Dr Asakawa, who spearheaded this research, said, "This research, for the first time, shows that TDP-43 aggregation is a cause of motor neuron dysfunction in animals. We think that the small TDP-43 assemblies, which are called TDP-43 oligomers, might be more toxic to motor neurons than the larger aggregates."

He continued "We can now produce an ALS-like state in a temporary and spatially tuned manner by controlling light intensity and the position of illumination. Our ultimate goal over the next few years is to identify chemicals that prevent optogenetic TDP-43 from forming oligomers and aggregates, and we hope such chemicals will be used for ALS treatment."

Solar energy that reaches the Earth is about 125 million gigawatt (Gw). When this solar energy generated for a year is converted into oil, it is 100 trillion ton which is ten thousand times more than the amount of oil energy the world uses in a year. So, it is no surprising when one of the coffee commercial ads said, "The sunlight reaching the Earth for 30 seconds is enough for the entire world to use energy for 48 hours." Converting this solar energy into electrical energy is solar cell energy. Recently a research team from POSTECH developed an eco-friendly organic electronic material technology to solve an environmental issue which can occur during the production process of the conventional perovskite solar cells.

POSTECH research team consisted of Prof. Taiho Park and Junwoo Lee, a student in joint MS-PhD program developed Alkoxy-PTEG, hole transport polymers that could be dissolved in peppermint oil, by applying ethylene glycol side chains when they produced high efficiency perovskite solar cells. Also, they confirmed that this polymer captured leaking lead in the aged perovskite solar cells.

The essential material of a solar cell is photoactive layer which absorbs solar energy. Perovskite uses materials with crystal structures as photoactive layers and its distinctive feature is absorbing lights very well which is possible by using cheap inorganic and organic materials. For this reason, it is referred to as 'next-generation solar cell.' But the problem is that organic materials of transport layer used in a solar cell uses toxic chemical solvent in the production process and can harm environment and humans and therefore cannot be mass produced. In addition, when lead in the perovskite becomes aged, it can leak.

They designed and synthesized new polymers so that they can be dissolved in peppermint oil (3-methylcyclohexanone) or walnut aromatic food additives (2-methyl anisole), which could replace the toxic chemicals used previously. This made a green process possible.

The research team processed the perovskite solar cells using peppermint oil as a solvent without any chemical additives and the solar cell efficiency reached 19.9% and 21.2% when walnut aroma food additives were used. Furthermore, disadvantage of the conventional perovskite solar cell is that it has low stability because it is weak to moisture and when there is water its photoelectric conversion efficiency decreases dramatically. The newly developed polymers, however, overcame the disadvantage. The research team verified that they kept 88% efficiency after 30 days passed and exhibited high stability.

In the meantime, they conducted magnetic resonance analysis and confirmed that the ethylene glycol side chains in the aged perovskite solar cells kept lead with moderate strength. They finally accomplished developing multifunctional hold transport polymers that could be eco-friendly solvent processed and prevent lead leakage. In other words, they kept leaked lead without destroying structures of the perovskite. Their achievement is expected to be a solution for environmental pollution issues caused by lead leakage, a chronic problem of the perovskite solar cells.

Junwoo Lee who conducted this research said, "When we use green solvent in the production process and prevent lead generated by the aged perovskite solar cells with a polymer, we can solve environmental issues of the high efficiency perovskite solar cells and mass produce them," implying its possible commercialization.

Prof. Taiho Park also commented, "Our research showed the world's highest efficiency of the perovskite solar cells which went through an eco-friendly process without any toxic substances added. We anticipate that this can be a solution to lead leakage of the conventional perovskite solar cells which harms human bodies or causes environmental problems."

The research was supported by the Center for Advanced Soft Electronics under the Global Frontier Project funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT. Their work has been published in the online version of Advanced Energy Materials, the most prominent journal in the field of energy and has gained much attention.

The Mediterranean Sea has been a major route for maritime migrations as well as frequent trade and invasions during prehistory, yet the genetic history of the Mediterranean islands is not well documented despite recent developments in the study of ancient DNA. An international team led by researchers from the University of Vienna, Harvard University and University of Florence, Italy, is filling in the gaps with the largest study to date of the genetic history of ancient populations of Sicily, Sardinia and the Balearic Islands, increasing the number of individuals with reported data from 5 to 66.

The results reveal a complex pattern of immigration from Africa, Asia and Europe which varied in direction and its timing for each of these islands. For Sicily the article reports on a new ancestry during the Middle Bronze Age that chronologically overlaps with the Greek Mycenaean trade network expansion.

Sardinians descend from Neolithic farmers

A very different story is unraveled in the case of Sardinia. Despite contacts and trade with other Mediterranean populations, ancient Sardinians retained a mostly local Neolithic ancestry profile until the end of the Bronze Age. However, during the second half of the 3rd millennium BC, one of the studied individuals from Sardinia has a large proportion of North African ancestry. Taken together with previous results of a contemporary central Iberian individual and a later 2nd mill. BC Bronze Age individual from Iberia, it clearly shows prehistoric maritime migrations across the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa to locations in southern Europe, affecting more than 1 percent of individuals reported in the ancient DNA literature from this region and time to date.

"Our results show that maritime migrations from North Africa started long before the era of the eastern Mediterranean seafaring civilizations and moreover were occurring in multiple parts of the Mediterranean", says Ron Pinhasi, a co-senior author of the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna.

During the Iron Age expansion and establishment of Greek and Phoenician colonies in the West Mediterranean islands, the two Sardinian individuals analyzed from that period had little, if any, ancestry from the previous long-established populations. "Surprisingly, our results show that despite these population fluxes and mixtures, modern Sardinians retained between 56-62 percent of ancestry from the first Neolithic farmers that arrived in Europe around 8000 years ago", says David Caramelli a co-senior author, and Director of Department of Biology at the University of Florence.

Migration from the Iberian Peninsula documented

"One of the most striking findings is about the arrival of ancestry from the Steppe north of the Black and Caspian Seas in some of the Mediterranean islands. While the ultimate origin of this ancestry was Eastern Europe, in the Mediterranean islands it arrived at least in part from the west, namely from Iberia", says David Reich, a co-senior author at Harvard University, who is also an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. "This was likely the case for the Balearic Islands, in which some early residents probably derived at least part of their ancestry from Iberia", says first author Daniel Fernandes, of the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna.

People in the industrialized counties are getting older and are very often in good health as a result of good nutrition, a healthier lifestyle and a higher level of education. More people nowadays know how to keep fit and prevent diseases. Screening programs have increased the survival rates of many illnesses such as cancer, national vaccination programs have completely eradicated many diseases, and better safety standards such as traffic regulation, risk management and safe work procedures have helped to reduce the number of accidents.

In a nutshell, people are getting older and healthier, but the prevention of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is lagging behind, with the number of patients on the rise. In 2016, 121 pmp started renal replacement, in 2017 this number rose to 127 pmp - according to figures released by the ERA-EDTA Renal Registry [2]. Most patients are elderly people, because the risk of chronic kidney disease increases with age. The mean age of patients starting RRT was 63.4 years.

The best available treatment of end-stage renal disease is kidney transplantation. "We know that patients benefit immensely from this treatment, survival and quality of life are significantly better compared to dialysis patients", explains Professor Ron Gansevoort, Press Officer of the ERA-EDTA. This can be easily explained: After successful kidney transplantation, the detoxification function can return almost completely to normal, and there is no accumulation of toxins and water in the body, as in dialysis patients between dialysis treatments. Furthermore, patients are not dependent on the blood washing procedure (usually 3 times a week for 4 hour), which greatly impacts "normal life".

However, due to the scarcity of donor organs, which is dramatic in many European countries, it is not possible for large numbers of people to receive transplants. When it comes to elderly patients, this scarcity produces a moral dilemma. Would it be correct to implant an organ into an elderly patient when a younger patient is also waiting for an organ and has a much longer life span ahead of him/her? One solution is the "old-to-old" donation, in which elderly patients receive the organs of deceased elderly patients. This raises the questions as to whether this kind of transplantation was "worth" being done, e.g. whether the old organs would work properly and whether the transplanted patient would derive a significant benefit.

These questions have now been answered by a new study published in NDT [1]. 138 recipients (?75 years) who received kidney transplants from similarly aged deceased persons between 2002 and 2015 were analyzed. One- and five-year patient survival was 82.1% and 60.1%, respectively, whereas the corresponding rates for death-censored graft survival were 95.6% and 93.1%, respectively.

"This study showed that elderly patients do indeed benefit from kidney transplantation, even when the donor organ is also old. Graft survival was found to be excellent, with nearly all patients remaining dialysis-free for the rest of their lives. In that light, we may have to reconsider our recommendation. We always thought that transplantation should generally not be offered to the very elderly (>75 years) because of the perioperative risks. The present study suggests otherwise. Larger studies that also take quality of life, number of hospital admissions and duration of hospital stays into account are also needed, however", concludes Professor Gansevoort.

When consumers are trying to decide between traditional and online shopping, many factors come into play, such as price, quality, convenience and timeframe. Now, thanks to new research reported in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology, eco-conscious consumers could have another consideration: greenhouse gas emissions. In the study, researchers estimated that shopping at brick-and-mortar stores for personal and home care products often produces less greenhouse gas than one type of online shopping, but more than another.

Fast-moving consumer goods, such as toiletries, cleaning supplies and packaged foods, are low-priced products that sell quickly and are purchased frequently. Although shoppers have traditionally bought these items at "Bricks & Mortar" (physical retail) stores, online sales are increasing in many countries, including China, the U.K. and the U.S. Among online shopping models, the two main types are "Bricks & Clicks" (online ordering, followed by home delivery directly from a physical store) and "Pure Play" (online ordering, with fulfillment via a parcel delivery company). Sadegh Shahmohammadi, Mark Huijbregts and colleagues wanted to systematically characterize and compare the greenhouse gas footprints of these three shopping practices.

The researchers estimated total greenhouse gas emissions associated with the three shopping methods for fast-moving consumer goods purchased in the U.K. Included in the three models were emissions from transport, warehouse storage, delivery and packaging. The analysis revealed that total greenhouse gas footprints per item purchased of Bricks & Mortar were higher than those of Bricks & Clicks in 63% of the shopping events and lower than those of Pure Players in 81% of shopping events. The study also identified ways that consumers and retailers could reduce their greenhouse gas emissions for each type of shopping. For example, Bricks & Mortar shoppers could reduce their footprint by 40% by walking or biking to stores, and Pure Players could cut emissions by 26% by switching from vans to electric cargo bikes for the delivery of products from parcel distribution centers to consumers' homes.

BOSTON (February 26, 2020, 5:00 a.m., EST)--Middle-aged and older adults who drank sugary beverages daily were at greater risk of developing abnormal cholesterol and triglyceride levels compared to those who rarely drank those beverages, according to a new epidemiological study published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

The study, led by scientists at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University (HNRCA), found that adults who drank at least one sugary beverage daily during the most recent period of follow-up, which was roughly four years before the assessment of lipid levels, had a 98 percent higher chance of developing low HDL (good) cholesterol and a 53 percent higher chance of developing high triglycerides, when compared to the group who seldom consumed sugary drinks. The researchers observed similar results when they examined long-term intakes of sugary beverages during a follow-up time of about 12 years.

Cholesterol and triglycerides are part of what is commonly referred to as a complete cholesterol test. When some elements of the test are abnormal, the condition is called dyslipidemia, which affects roughly half of American adults. Elevated LDL (bad) cholesterol and triglycerides, along with low good cholesterol levels, indicate a higher risk for heart disease.

"The results suggest that high intake of drinks with added sugar, such as soda, lemonade or fruit punch, may influence risk for dyslipidemia as we age," said corresponding and last author Nicola McKeown, nutritional epidemiologist at the HNRCA. "One dietary strategy to help maintain healthier blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels may be to avoid drinks with added sugars."

The researchers also found that high sugary beverage intake was associated with HDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels that, measured at approximately four-year intervals, were moving in the wrong direction among daily sugary beverage drinkers when compared to those who rarely drank beverages with added sugar - even for a group of adults whose average age was in their 40s.

"With these younger participants, we did see unfavorable changes, but they were likely too young during the short follow-up period to know if they would eventually develop dyslipidemia," said first author Danielle Haslam. "Our findings contribute to the mounting evidence that sugary drinks should be avoided to help maintain long-term health." Haslam was a doctoral student at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University working in the nutritional epidemiology program at the HNRCA at the time of the study.

The researchers also studied 100% fruit juice and diet drinks, common replacements for sugar-sweetened beverages, but found no consistent associations with adverse changes in cholesterol and increased risk of dyslipidemia. Still, the researchers urge moderation.

"We are better off quenching our thirst with water. The emerging research on long-term consumption of diet soda on health is inconclusive, so it is prudent to say diet drinks should only be an occasional indulgence," said McKeown. "As for 100% fruit juice, best to limit consumption and consume whole fruits when possible, as recommended by the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans."

"Our findings show that what we put in our glass may contribute to greater risk of cardiovascular disease via worsening of lipid levels. Managing blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels is an important goal and a promising strategy for preventing heart attack and stroke," McKeown said.

As expected and consistent with previous research, sugary beverage consumption was not linked to risk for higher LDL (bad) cholesterol, the authors said.

The researchers analyzed data from more than 5,900 people, comparing changes in blood cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations between exams. Participants were categorized according to the types and frequency of beverages they consumed. The study participants were examined at intervals of four years on average and followed for about 12 years as part of the Framingham Heart Study, which has monitored multiple generations to identify contributors to cardiovascular disease. In their statistical analysis, the researchers adjusted for other factors known to influence cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations, such as obesity, overall diet quality, physical activity, alcohol intake, and the use of cholesterol-lowering drugs.

There are some limitations to the study, including the use of self-reported food data from food frequency questionnaires. The findings are also only generalizable to middle-aged or older adults of European descent. Due to its observational design, the study does not reflect a causal relationship between sugary drink consumption and abnormal cholesterol and triglyceride levels.