Tech

Scientists from the Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, in collaboration with the University of Oxford and the NIST agency, have shown that quantum interference enables processing of large sets of data faster and more accurately than with standard methods. Their studies may boost applications of quantum technologies in e.g. artificial intelligence, robotics and medical diagnostics. The results of this work have been published in the Science Advances journal.

Contemporary science, medicine, engineering and information technology demand efficient processing of data - still images, sound and radio signals, as well as information coming from different sensors and cameras. Since the 1970s, this has been achieved by means of the Fast Fourier Transform algorithm (FFT). The FFT makes it possible to efficiently compress and transmit data, store pictures, broadcast digital TV, and talk over a mobile phone. Without this algorithm, medical imaging systems based on magnetic resonance or ultrasound would not have been developed. However, it is still too slow for many demanding applications.

To meet this goal, scientists have been trying for years to harness quantum mechanics. This resulted in the development of a quantum counterpart of the FFT, the Quantum Fourier Transform (QFT), which can be realized with a quantum computer. As the quantum computer processes simultaneously all possible values (so-called "superpositions") of input data, the number of operations decreases considerably.

In spite of the rapid development of quantum computing, there is a relative stagnation in the field of quantum algorithms. Now scientists have shown that this result can be improved, and in a rather surprising way.

Kravchuk transform

Mathematics describes many transforms. One of them is a Kravchuk transform. It is very similar to the FFT, as it allows processing of discrete (e.g. digital) data, but uses Kravchuk functions to decompose the input sequence into the spectrum. At the end of 1990s, the Kravchuk transform was "rediscovered" in computer science. It turned out to be excellent for image and sound processing. It allowed scientists to develop new and much more precise algorithms for the recognition of printed and handwritten text (including even Chinese language), gestures, sign language, people, and faces. Already a dozen years ago, it was shown that this transform is ideal for processing low-quality, noisy and distorted data and thus, it could be used for computer vision in robotics and autonomous vehicles. There is no fast algorithm to compute this transform. It turns out that quantum mechanics allows one to circumvent this limitation.

"Holy Grail" of computer science

In their article published in Science Advances, scientists from the University of Warsaw - Dr. habil. Magdalena Stobinska and Dr. Adam Buraczewski, the University of Oxford and the NIST agency have showed that the simplest quantum gate, which interferes two quantum states, essentially computes the Kravchuk transform. Such a gate could be a well-known optical device - a beam splitter, which divides photons between two outputs. When two states of quantum light enter its input ports from two sides, they interfere. For example, two identical photons, which simultaneously enter this device, bunch into pairs and come out together by the same exit port. This is the well-known Hong-Ou-Mandel effect, which can also be extended to states made of many particles. By interfering "packets" consisting of many indistinguishable photons (indistinguishability is very important as its absence destroys the quantum effect), which encode the information, one obtains a specialized quantum computer that computes the Kravchuk transform.

The experiment was performed in a quantum optical laboratory at the premises of the Department of Physics of the University of Oxford, where a special setup was built to produce multiphoton quantum states, so-called Fock states. This laboratory is equipped with TESs (Transmission Edge Sensors), developed by NIST, which operate at near-absolute zero temperatures. These detectors possess a unique feature: they can actually count photons. This allows one to precisely read the quantum state leaving the beam splitter and thus, the result of the computation. Most importantly, such a computation of the quantum Kravchuk transform always takes the same time, regardless of the size of the input data set. It is the "Holy Grail" of computer science: an algorithm consisting of just one operation, implemented with a single gate. Of course, in order to obtain the result in practice, one needs to perform the experiment several hundred times to get the statistics. This is how every quantum computer works. However, it does not take long, because the laser produces dozens of millions of multiphoton "packets" per second.

The result obtained by scientists from Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States, will find applications in the development of new quantum technologies and quantum algorithms. Its range of uses go beyond quantum photonics, since a similar quantum interference can be observed in many different quantum systems. The University of Warsaw applied for an international patent for this innovation. The scientists hope that the Kravchuk transform will soon find use in quantum computation, where it will become a component of new algorithms, especially in hybrid quantum-classical computers that merge quantum circuits with "normal" digital layouts.

Physics and Astronomy first appeared at the University of Warsaw in 1816, under the then Faculty of Philosophy. In 1825 the Astronomical Observatory was established. Currently, the Faculty of Physics' Institutes include Experimental Physics, Theoretical Physics, Geophysics, Department of Mathematical Methods and an Astronomical Observatory. Research covers almost all areas of modern physics, on scales from the quantum to the cosmological. The Faculty's research and teaching staff includes ca. 200 university teachers, of which 77 are employees with the title of professor. The Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, is attended by ca. 1000 students and more than 170 doctoral students.

A team of researchers from Tokyo Institute of Technology has gained unprecedented insight into the inner workings of an atomic switch [1]. By investigating the composition of the tiny metal 'bridge' that forms inside the switch, their findings may spur the design of atomic switches with improved performance.

Atomic switches are hailed as the tiniest of electrochemical switches that could change the face of information technology. Due to their nanoscale dimensions and low power consumption, they hold promise for integration into next-generation circuits that could drive the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

Although various designs have emerged, one intriguing question concerns the nature of the metallic filament, or bridge, that is key to the operation of the switch. The bridge forms inside a metal sulfide layer sandwiched between two electrodes (see Figure 1), and is controlled by applying a voltage that induces an electrochemical reaction. The formation and annihilation of this bridge determines whether the switch is on or off.

Now, a research group including Akira Aiba and Manabu Kiguchi and colleagues at Tokyo Institute of Technology's Department of Chemistry has found a useful way to examine precisely what the bridge is composed of.

By cooling the atomic switch enough so as to be able to investigate the bridge using a low-temperature measurement technique called point contact spectroscopy (PCS) [2], their study revealed that the bridge is made up of metal atoms from both the electrode and the metal sulfide layer. This surprising finding controverts the prevailing notion that the bridge derives from the electrode only, Kiguchi explains.

The team compared atomic switches with different combinations of electrodes (Pt and Ag, or Pt and Cu) and metal sulfide layers (Cu2S and Ag2S). In both cases, they found that the bridge is mainly composed of Ag.

The reason behind the dominance of Ag in the bridge is likely due to "the higher mobility of Ag ions compared to Cu ions", the researchers say in their paper published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

They conclude that "it would be better to use metals with low mobility" for designing atomic switches with higher stability.

Much remains to be explored in the advancement of atomic switch technologies, and the team is continuing to investigate which combination of elements would be the most effective in improving performance.

PHOENIX, Ariz., and BOSTON, Mass. -- July 19, 2019 -- A bone cancer known as osteosarcoma is genetically similar in dogs and human children, according to the results of a study published today by Tufts University and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope. The findings could help break the logjam in the treatment of this deadly disease, which hasn't seen a significant medical breakthrough in nearly three decades.

"While osteosarcoma (OS) is rare in children, it is all too common in many dog breeds, which makes it a prime candidate for the kind of comparative cancer biology studies that could enhance drug development for both children and our canine friends," said Will Hendricks, Ph.D., an Assistant Professor in TGen's Integrated Cancer Genomics Division, and one of the study's senior authors.

Using multiple molecular-level testing platforms, TGen and Tufts researchers sequenced the genomes of 59 dogs, finding that canine OS shares many of the genomic features of human OS, including low mutation rates, structural complexity, altered cellular pathways, and unique genetic features of metastatic tumors that spread to other parts of the body.

Study results appeared today in the Nature journal, Communications Biology.

"These findings set the stage for understanding OS development in dogs and humans, and establish genomic contexts for future comparative analyses," said Cheryl A. London, DVM, Ph.D., the Anne Engen and Dusty Professor in Comparative Oncology at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, and the study's other senior author.

The study also identified new features of canine OS, including recurrent and potentially cancer-causing mutations in two genes, SETD2 and DMD. The study suggests that these findings merit further exploration.

OS is an aggressive disease and the most commonly-diagnosed primary bone tumor in dogs and children. Though a relatively rare cancer in humans -- with fewer than 1,000 cases each year -- OS strikes more than 25,000 dogs annually.

Although surgery and chemotherapy can extend survival, about 30 percent of pediatric OS patients die from metastatic tumors within 5 years. The cancer moves much faster in dogs, with more than 90 percent succumbing to metastatic disease within 2 years.

"The genetic similarity between dogs and humans provides a unique opportunity and a comparative model that will enable the development of new therapies within a compressed timeline," said Heather L. Gardner, DVM, a Ph.D. candidate in Tufts' Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, and the study's lead author.

Jeffrey Trent, Ph.D., FACMG, TGen President and Research Director, and a contributing author, said the comparative oncology approach is vital to the rapid development of new treatments for people and pets that need help today.

"Leveraging the similarities between the human and canine forms of OS adds greatly to our understanding of how this aggressive cancer develops and spreads. More importantly, it provides an opportunity to develop therapies that make a difference in the lives of children and pets," said Dr. Trent, who has been a proponent of comparative oncology for more than a decade.

New research has discovered that cigarette butts - the most common form of litter on the planet - significantly reduce plant growth.

Led by academics from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and published in the journal Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, the study is the first to show the damage that cigarette butts can cause to plants.

The researchers found that the presence of cigarette butts in the soil reduces the germination success and shoot length (the length of the stem) of clover by 27% and 28% respectively, while root biomass (root weight) reduced by 57%. For grass, germination success reduced by 10% and shoot length by 13%.

Most cigarette butts contain a filter made of cellulose acetate fibre, a type of a bioplastic. Filters from unsmoked cigarettes had almost the same effect on plant growth as used filters, indicating that the damage to plants is caused by the filter itself, even without the additional toxins released from the burning of the tobacco. Control experiments contained pieces of wood of identical shape and size as the cigarette butts.

It is estimated that around 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered every year, making them the most pervasive form of plastic pollution on the planet. As part of this study, the academics sampled locations around the city of Cambridge and found areas with as many as 128 discarded cigarette butts per square metre.

Lead author Dr Dannielle Green, Senior Lecturer in Biology at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), said: "Despite being a common sight littering streets and parks worldwide, our study is the first to show the impact of cigarette butts on plants. We found they had a detrimental effect on the germination success and shoot length of both grass and clover, and reduced the root weight of clover by over half.

"Ryegrass and white clover, the two species we tested, are important forage crops for livestock as well as being commonly found in urban green spaces. These plants support a wealth of biodiversity, even in city parks, and white clover is ecologically important for pollinators and nitrogen fixation.

"Many smokers think cigarette butts quickly biodegrade and therefore don't really consider them as litter. In reality, the filter is made out of a type of bioplastic that can take years, if not decades, to break down.

"In some parks, particularly surrounding benches and bins, we found over 100 cigarette butts per square metre. Dropping cigarette butts seems to be a socially acceptable form of littering and we need to raise awareness that the filters do not disappear and instead can cause serious damage to the environment."

Co-author Dr Bas Boots, Lecturer in Biology at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), added: "Although further work is needed, we believe it is the chemical composition of the filter that is causing the damage to plants. Most are made from cellulose acetate fibres, and added chemicals which make the plastic more flexible, called plasticisers, may also be leaching out and adversely affecting the early stages of plant development."

Lithium metal anode is promising to upgrade the energy density of lithium ion batteries for its high specific capacity (3800 mAh g-1) and low voltage (-3.04 V vs. Li/Li+). But the safety issues caused by the dendrite growth and the instability in air caused by its high chemical activity limit its large-scale use as an electrode material. Lithium metal is highly sensitive to moisture and oxidative components in the air, leading to the generation of insulating products like lithium hydroxides on its surface and the resultant deterioration of the electrochemical performance. Moreover, when lithium contacts with water, combustion and explosion might happen due to the production of hydrogen and heat. The sensitivity of lithium metal raises demanding requirement for the transport, storage and process of the lithium metal anode. It is hence highly desired to develop an air-stable and waterproof lithium metal anode for its real use in the future.

In the electronics field, the packaging technology protects electronic components from the physical damage and the corrosion in humid air and water by a coating, which provides a design thought for the protection of lithium metal. Recently, a research team led by Prof. Quan-Hong Yang in Tianjin University and Prof. Wei Lv in Tsinghua University developed a wax-PEO coating on lithium metal surface by a simple dip coating method to realize an air-stable and waterproof lithium metal anode. Wax as a commonly-used inert sealing material is easily coated on the surface of lithium metal. The obtained wax-based composite coating prevents the adverse reactions of lithium metal in the air and water. In batteries, the coating retards the etching of electrolyte to the surface of lithium metal anodes while the homogeneously distributed PEO guarantees the uniform lithium ion conduction at the interface and inhibits the growth of lithium dendrites.

Under the protection of wax-PEO coating, lithium surface keeps unchanged in the air with high relative humidity of 70% for 24h, and the high capacity retention of 85% is achieved. Even contacting lithium with water immediately, there is no combustion or capacity decay occurred. The coated lithium metal anode keeps stable for as long as 500 h in symmetric cells and the lithium sulfur batteries assembled with the coated lithium metal anode show a low capacity decay rate of 0.075% per cycle for 300 cycles. This work demonstrates an efficient package technology for the air-stable and waterproof lithium metal anodes, which is easily scalable and applicable to other sensitive electrode materials.

Operating rooms are a precious resource. They may account for 50 percent of a hospital's revenues and cost as much as $80 a minute. But figuring out how much time to allot for a surgery is a challenge every hospital faces.

"OR scheduling is a $5 billion problem. To optimize the OR, you have to answer a fundamental question: How long does each surgery take?" said co-lead author Rajeev Saxena, an anesthesiology resident at the University of Washington School of Medicine. "Underutilization means fewer patients get surgical care and the hospital has excess capacity. Overutilization results in cancelled operations and overtime expenses."

To try to improve the prediction of surgical-case duration, Saxena, in collaboration with physicians in surgery and anesthesia, scientists, and informatics experts inside and outside University of Washington, created machine-learning models for each surgical specialty and for individual surgeons.

Their study, "Improving operating room efficiency: A machine-learning approach to predict case-time duration," was published July 18 in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

The researchers collected data from over 45,000 surgeries over four years performed by 92 surgeons. Their surgeon-specific models were able to improve accuracy from 30 percent (based on a surgeon's estimate) to 40 percent. Among the top-third of surgeons, accuracy improved to more than 50 percent.

As more data is inputted, the model will improve over time, noted co-lead author Matthew Bartek, chief resident in general surgery at the UW School of Medicine.

"If we can improve the data, we can zero in on more accurate estimates," Bartek said. "This is just the first step."

To create their estimates, researchers gathered data from multiple electronic medical records on the patient, the type of surgery, the surgery personnel, and the surgery scheduling information. Only preoperative data was used.

Of all the data captured, the greatest variability was between surgeons.

"Each surgeon has a unique approach to an operation and this data confirmed it," said senior author Bala Nair, former director of a UW School of Medicine technical center that looked at improving care through informatics and technology solutions.

"This work is bringing operating rooms into the 21st century by applying modern data science methods to improve operations," he said.

"For years, operating rooms have been relying on surgeon's estimates for operating times. But surgeons usually greatly underestimate the time of procedures," said senior author John Lang, clinical director of operative and perioperative operations at UW Medicine.

Lang said two hospitals in the UW Medicine system are rated by the Medicare Case Mix Index highly for complex surgeries. UW Medical Center is rated No. 3 and Harborview Medical Center is rated No. 13. Because of this, accurate prediction of surgical case duration is especially challenging and impactful.

Said Saxena: "You can change an entire organizational culture by taking a data-forward approach and engaging key stakeholders."

'You stole my idea' or 'I'm not getting credit for my work' are common disputes

Only tool validated by research to help scientists collaborate smoothly

Many NSF and NIH grants now require applicants to show readiness for team science

Scientists can't do it on their own

CHICAGO --- When scientists from different disciplines collaborate - as is increasingly necessary to confront the complexity of challenging research problems - interpersonal tussles often arise. One scientist may accuse another of stealing her ideas. Or, a researcher may feel he is not getting credit for his work or doesn't have access to important data.

"Interdisciplinary team science is now the state of the art across all branches of science and engineering," said Bonnie Spring, professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "But very few scientists have been trained to work with others outside of their own disciplinary silo."

The skill is critical because many National Institute of Health and National Science Foundation grants require applicants to show readiness for team science.

A free, online training tool developed by Northwestern, teamscience.net,
has been been proven to develop skills to work with other scientists outside their own discipline.

A new study led by Spring showed scientists who completed the program's modules - called COALESCE - significantly boosted their knowledge about team science and increased their self-confidence about being able to successfully work in scientific teams. Most people who completed one or more modules (84%) said that the experience of taking the modules was very likely to positively impact their future research.

The study will be published July 18 in the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science.

There are few training resources to teach scientists how to collaborate, and the ones that are available don't have evidence of their effectiveness.

Teamscience.net is the only free, validated-by-research tool available to anyone at any time.

Almost 1,000 of the COALESCE users opted voluntarily to respond to questions about the learning modules, providing information about how taking each module influenced team science knowledge, skills and attitudes.

'You stole my idea'

The most common area of dispute among collaborating scientists is authorship concerns, such as accusations that one person stole ideas from another or that a contributor was not getting credit for his or her work, the study authors said. Other disputes arise around access to and analysis of data, utilization of materials or resources, and the general direction of the research itself. Underlying all of these issues is a common failure to prepare for working collaboratively with other scientists.

"Preparing in advance before starting to collaborate, often through the creation of a formal collaboration agreement document, is the best way to head off these types of disputes," said Angela Pfammatter, assistant professor of preventive medicine at Feinberg and a coauthor on the paper.

Spring suggested "having scientists discuss their expectations of one another and the collaboration to prevent acrimonious conflicts."

Skills to play well together

These skills are critical to a successful scientific team, the authors said:

1) The ability to choose team members who have the right mix of expertise, temperament and accessibility to round out a team.

2) The ability to anticipate what could go wrong and to develop contingency plans in advance.

3) The ability to manage conflict within the team.

The teamscience.net modules help scientists acquire these skills by letting them interact with different problem scenarios that can arise in team-based research. They can try out different solutions and learn from mistakes in a safe, online environment.

More than 16,000 people have accessed the resource in the past six years. Demand for team science training is expected to increase as interdisciplinary teams set out to tackle some of science's most challenging problems.

NASA's Aqua satellite found Tropical Storm Danas moving over Japan's Ryuku island chain in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean.

The Ruyku islands include Osumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, Yonaguni and the Sakishima Islands. The island chain extends southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan.

On July 18 at 1:20 a.m. EDT (0520 UTC), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite provided a visible image of Danas that showed a large storm over Japan's Ryuku Island chain. The image shows that Danas is being affected by vertical wind shear, where winds at different levels of the atmosphere around the tropical cyclone are pushing against it and affecting the storm's shape. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center noted, "A large area of deep convection sheared 60 nautical miles southward of a consolidating low-level center.

At 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC), on July 18, the center of Danas was located near latitude 26.7 degrees north and longitude 123.6 degrees west. Danas was about 215 nautical miles west of Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan. Danas was moving to the north and had maximum sustained winds near 40 knots (46 mph/74 kph).

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center expects Danas to veer to the north-northeast and run parallel to the east coast of China, moving into the Yellow Sea and across the Korean peninsula. Danas is expected to dissipate after it moves into the Sea of Japan.

Low doses of radiation equivalent to three CT scans, which are considered safe, give cancer-capable cells a competitive advantage over normal cells in healthy tissue, scientists have discovered. Researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the University of Cambridge studied the effects of low doses of radiation in the oesophagus of mice.

The team found that low doses of radiation increase the number of cells with mutations in p53, a well-known genetic change associated with cancer. However, giving the mice an antioxidant before radiation promoted the growth of healthy cells, which outcompeted and replaced the p53 mutant cells.

The results, published today (18 July) in Cell Stem Cell show that low doses of radiation promote the spread of cancer-capable cells in healthy tissue. Researchers recommend that this risk should be considered in assessing radiation safety. The study also offers the possibility of developing non-toxic preventative measures to cut the risk of developing cancer by bolstering our healthy cells to outcompete and eradicate cancer-capable cells.

Every day we are exposed to various sources of ionising radiation, including natural radiation in soil and rock, and important medical procedures like CT scans and x-rays.

Low doses of radiation, such as the exposure from medical imaging, are considered safe as they cause little DNA damage and apparently minimal effect on long-term health. Until now, other effects of exposure to low levels of radiation have remained hidden, meaning understanding the true risk associated with low doses of radiation has been difficult.

Researchers have previously shown that our normal tissues, like skin, are battlefields where mutant cells compete for space against healthy cells. We all have cancer-capable mutant cells in healthy tissues, including those with p53 mutations, which increase in number as we age, yet very few eventually go on to form cancer.

In this new study, researchers show that low doses of radiation weigh the odds in favour of cancer-capable mutant cells in the oesophagus. The Sanger Institute researchers and their collaborators gave mice a 50 milligray dose of radiation, equivalent to three or four CT scans. As a result, the p53 mutant cells spread and outcompeted healthy cells.

Dr David Fernandez-Antoran, first author from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "Our bodies are the set of 'Game of Clones' - a continuous battle for space between normal and mutant cells. We show that even low doses of radiation, similar to three CT scans' worth, can weigh the odds in favour of cancer-capable mutant cells. We've uncovered an additional potential cancer risk as a result of radiation that needs to be recognised."

Researchers then gave the mice an over-the-counter antioxidant - N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) - before exposure to the same level of radiation. The team discovered that the antioxidant gave normal cells the boost needed to outcompete and eradicate the p53 mutant cells.

However, the antioxidant alone without exposure to radiation did not help normal cells battle the mutant clones.

Dr Kasumi Murai, an author from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "Giving mice an antioxidant before exposing them to low doses of radiation gave healthy cells the extra boost needed to fight against the mutant cells in the oesophagus and make them disappear. However, we don't know the effect this therapy would have in other tissues - it could help cancer-capable cells elsewhere become stronger. What we do know is that long term use of antioxidants alone is not effective in preventing cancer in people, according to other studies."

Professor Phil Jones, lead author from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and MRC Cancer Unit, University of Cambridge, said: "Medical imaging procedures using radiation, such as CT scans and x-rays, have a very low level of risk - so low that it's hard to measure. This research is helping us understand more about the effects of low doses of radiation and the risks it may carry. More research is needed to understand the effects in people."

The team suggests this research also highlights the possibility of developing therapies to prevent cancer. By making healthy cells fitter they naturally push out cancer-capable cells, without any toxic side effects for the patient.

PHILADELPHIA -- For years cardiologists have threaded hair-like surgical instruments through arteries in the wrist, as an access point to perform procedures on the heart. For procedures in the brain, however, neurosurgeons more commonly thread instruments through arteries at the groin - a transfemoral approach. In the largest cohort study to date, new research from Jefferson (Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University) demonstrates that transradial surgery, done via the wrist, is safe and effective for a broad range of neuroendovascular procedures, and gives patients faster recovery with less procedural risk.

"Despite improved safety shown in large cardiology trials, transradial brain surgeries via the wrist are much less common," says senior author of the study and neurosurgeon Pascal Jabbour, MD, Professor of Neurological Surgery and the Chief of the Division of Neurovascular and Endovascular Neurosurgery, and researcher at the Vickie & Jack Farber Institute for Neuroscience -- Jefferson Health. "Neurosurgeons tend to prefer the transfemoral approach on which many of us were trained. But our research demonstrates that all kinds of neurological procedures can be done effectively and even more safely via the wrist."

The results were published in the journal Stroke on July 17.

Dr. Jabbour and his team, including first author Omaditya Khanna, MD, retrospectively examined the medical records of 223 patients treated at Jefferson via the transradial route. The procedures included diagnostic angiograms, mechanical thrombectomies, AVM/AVF embolizations, coiling, stent-assisted-coiling, WEB device placement and flow-diversion treatments of cerebral aneurysms, and carotid stent placement.

A subset of 66 patients who had undergone both transfemoral (groin) and a transradial (wrist) surgeries were selected to complete a satisfaction survey to assess their preference. The majority of patients, 94 percent, said they preferred surgery via the wrist.

In addition, it is easier to ensure a blood vessel in the wrist has clotted, and so patients can go home shortly after surgery, rather than laying horizontally for 4-6 hours after transfemoral surgery. "Laying flat after certain kinds of brain surgery should be avoided in cases with high intracranial pressure, and yet it's the best way to prevent groin and internal bleeds," says Dr. Jabbour. "For these cases surgery via the wrist is by far the safest option."

One of the most compelling reasons to change practice, says Dr. Jabbour, is that it eliminates the risk of rare but potentially dangerous complications of post-surgical bleeds in the groin and retroperitoneal area, which can be difficult to detect. A pioneer in the field, Dr. Jabbour was one of the first neurosurgeons to perform brain surgery via the wrist and has continued to teach others this technique.

Needing to ride in a wheelchair can put the brakes on myriad opportunities - some less obvious than one might think. New research from Michigan State University sheds light on the bias people have toward people with disabilities, known as "ableism," and how it shifts over time.

Contrary to popular belief, the findings suggest that biases toward people with disabilities increase with age and over time, but that people are less likely to show how they really feel publicly.

"Disabilities are a sensitive, uncomfortable topic for many people to talk about. Few are willing to acknowledge a bias toward people with disabilities," said William Chopik, MSU assistant professor of psychology and senior author. "Because this is so understudied, the goal of our research was to characterize why - and which types of - people hold higher biases against those with disabilities."

The research, published in the Journal of Social Issues, is the largest of its kind using data from 300,000 participants gathered over 13 years. Participants ranged from 18- to 90-years-old, and 15% classified themselves as having a disability.

Authors Jenna Harder, Victor Keller and Chopik used data from Project Implicit, a platform that allows users to learn and measure biases anonymously. The platform defined a disability as "some sort of physical, mental or emotional limitation" and asked a series of questions measuring feelings about people with disabilities. The researchers also measured how much contact participants had with the disability community using a scale of one to seven, one being "knowing someone" and seven being "having constant contact" with a person with a disability.

The researchers used the surveys to measure implicit attitudes and explicit bias. Harder explained that an implicit attitude are thoughts or feelings that happen automatically, which are hard to control, suppress or regulate. Explicit attitudes, she said, are the things people consciously agree with and are more controllable because it is how people express or portray their opinions about something publicly. One can think through what they are about to say and filter themselves if necessary, she said.

The researchers found that implicit bias from respondents increased over time and with age, meaning that they had less-favorable feelings toward people with disabilities. But, when asking explicitly how much participants preferred people with disabilities to be abled, they shared more positive responses with time and age, meaning that they outwardly portrayed positive opinions about people with disabilities.

"This is a big mystery because people outwardly say they feel less biased, but in actuality the implicit attitude has been getting stronger as time goes on," Chopik said. "It's not popular to express negative opinions about people with disabilities, so perhaps they feel inclined say nicer things publicly instead. Changes in explicit attitudes do not always lead to changes in implicit prejudice - sometimes becoming more aware of a prejudice might increase implicit prejudice."

The findings also revealed that women felt less implicit bias, and that people who had contact with the disabled population had lower prejudice.

"Some of our findings related to women align with stereotypes: when you look at how men and women compare on bias, women are more compassionate toward stigmatized groups," Harder said.

"Gender was one of the most consistent predictors in this study, supporting theories that women are particularly receptive to people who they perceive as needing help."

Chopik explained that lower prejudice from people who had contact with disabled people was consistent with theories related to interactions with other stigmatized groups.

"As you interact more with a stigmatized group, you can potentially have more positive experiences with them, which changes your attitudes," he said. "You start with a certain bias, but over time those biases are challenged and your attitude changes because you have the chance to develop positive associations with the group and see them in a different light."

Data gathered from disabled participants showed feelings of warmth among their own community and a more positive attitude toward their peers. The more visible a disability - like needing a wheelchair or a walker - the stronger the positive attitude toward the disability community was.

Chopik emphasized the lack of research on ableism and hopes to encourage more participation from academia.

"There's a broader goal of increasing inclusion and reducing prejudice and bias toward people with disabilities," Chopik said. "I think we all want to live in a society where people feel welcome and not be constricted in doing things, and there are plenty of ways to try to change and challenge that by rethinking policies and making our everyday lives more accessible."

Great holiday, fantastic party, adorable children, incredible food: everyone shows their life in the best light on social networks. Those who take a look around on such sites can find that their self-esteem takes a hit as it seems as though everyone is better than them. Users who use social networks passively, i.e. do not post themselves, and tend to compare themselves with others are in danger of developing depressive symptoms. This is what a team of psychologists at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) led by Dr. Phillip Ozimek discovered. The journal Behaviour & Information Technology reports on the results on 12 July 2019.

Information on the first five people

The answers to the question of whether using social networks can trigger depressive tendencies have been contradictory so far. The researchers from Bochum carried out one experimental and two questionnaire studies. In the first study, they had two groups of test subjects spend five minutes writing information about the first five people they saw either on their Facebook wall or on the staff website of the Faculty of Catholic Theological at RUB. A third group skipped this task. All three groups then completed a questionnaire that provided information about their self-esteem.

"It was shown that being confronted by social information on the Internet - which is selective and only positive and favourable, whether on Facebook and on employee websites - leads to lower self-esteem," reports Phillip Ozimek. As low self-esteem is closely related to depressive symptoms, researchers consider even this short-term effect to be a potential source of danger.

Over 800 test subjects

They investigated long-term prospects using questionnaire studies. They interviewed over 800 people about their use of Facebook, their tendency to compare themselves with others, their self-esteem and the occurrence of depressive symptoms. They found that there is a positive correlation between passive Facebook use, in particular, and depressive symptoms when subjects have an increased need to make social comparisons of their abilities. "So, when I have a strong need to compare and keep seeing in my newsfeed that other people are having great holidays, making great deals, and buying great, expensive things while everything I see out of my office window is grey and overcast, it lowers my self-esteem," Ozimek sums up. "And if I experience this day after day, over and over again, this can promote greater depressive tendencies over the long term."

In a third study, the researchers used questionnaires to find out whether their findings could also be transferred to other networks. As professional networks work somewhat differently, they chose Xing. "Although people's profiles on there have still been candy-coated, they keep themselves grounded in order to appear as genuine, yet positive, as possible," explains Phillip Ozimek. The results of the evaluation were very similar to those of the Facebook study.

The type of use is significant

"Overall, we were able to show that it is not the use of social networks that generally and directly leads to or is related to depression, but that certain preconditions and a particular type of use increase the risk of depressive tendencies," says Ozimek. Private and professional social networks can promote higher levels of depression if users mainly use them passively, compare themselves with others socially and these comparisons have a negative impact on self-esteem.

"It is important that this impression that everyone else is better off can be an absolute fallacy," says the psychologist. "In fact, very few people post on social media about negative experiences. However, the fact that we are flooded with these positive experiences on the Internet gives us a completely different impression."

The risk factors for stroke and dementia are the same, and a growing body of evidence demonstrates that preventing stroke can also prevent some dementias.

Now, a group of experts led by Western University Professor, Dr. Vladimir Hachinski and international collaborators Matthias Endres, Martin Dichgans and Zaven Khachaturian are calling on the global community to come together to take action on preventing dementia by preventing stroke.

"The evidence for doing so is incontestable; the time to act is now," the authors write in an article, "Preventing dementia by preventing stroke: The Berlin Manifesto,") published today in the journal Alzheimer's and Dementia. The article is the result of a meeting of international experts that took place in Berlin in October 2018.

The authors note that because stroke doubles the chances of developing dementia, and 90 per cent of strokes are preventable, mitigating stroke risk at the population level provides the most immediate and promising opportunity reduce the rates of both stroke and dementia. They say the best way to do this is through international and national policies. "However if we are to succeed, radical new approaches are needed moving well beyond current paradigms," the group writes.

Dr. Hachinski and his group point out that previously dementia and stroke were explored completely separately, and researchers at Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry were one of the first to look at them together and how they relate on a population level.

"Our group showed that even if a person had the warning signs of stroke, and went to a stroke prevention clinic, the chances of dying that year decreased by 26 per cent," said Dr. Hachinski. "We started to look at what was happening to the incidence of dementia as the rates of stroke decreased."

His team showed that over a 12-year period in Ontario, stroke rate decreased by over 32 per cent and dementia rate also decreased by 7 per cent. Knowing that this was the case in Ontario led Hachinski and his colleagues to explore what this might mean on an international level.

"We've spent the better part of a decade using translational basic science and clinical approaches to tackle this issue," said co-author Shawn Whitehead, PhD, associate professor at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry. "London is recognized internationally for its stroke prevention strategies and positive outcomes on prevention of dementia and this document is so important because it brings together a stellar group of international clinicians and scientists that advocate for treating stroke to prevent dementia."

The publication calls for an International Consortium to be created to look specifically at how this idea might be implemented globally.

"Because people are working in their own corners, there are synergies to be gained by connecting," Dr. Hachinski said. "There are a lot of things that we don't know that we know. We need people who are prepared to take a broader view to come together and move forward."

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- By measuring the fast electrical spikes of individual neurons in the touch region of the brain, Brown University neuroscientists have discovered a new type of cell that keeps time so regularly that it may serve as the brain's long-hypothesized clock or metronome.

This type of neuron spikes rhythmically, and in a synchronized manner, independent of external sensations, said Chris Moore, a professor of neuroscience at Brown and the associate director of the Carney Institute for Brain Science. By "setting the beat," the neurons appear to improve rodents' ability to detect when their whiskers are lightly tapped.

Brain waves with approximately 40 cycles per second -- also known as gamma rhythms -- have been studied since the mid-1930s in humans and rodents, and earlier work from Moore's lab showed that boosting the rodents' natural gamma rhythms helped the rodents detect fainter whisker sensations.

"Gamma rhythms have been a huge topic of debate," Moore said. "Some greatly respected neuroscientists view gamma rhythms as the magic, unifying clock that align signals across brain areas. There are other equally respected neuroscientists that, colorfully, view gamma rhythms as the exhaust fumes of computation: They show up when the engine is running but they're absolutely not important."

The metronome-like function of the gamma rhythm has been hypothesized before, but has been largely written off because gamma rhythms change in response to sensations, Moore added. These newly discovered spiking "metronome" neurons -- which spike around 40 cycles a second -- do not.

The findings were published on Thursday, July 18, in the journal Neuron.

Moore and Brown neuroscience doctoral student Hyeyoung Shin didn't set out to find metronome neurons, which the researchers call gamma regular nonsensory fast-spiking interneurons. Instead, initially they wanted to study the sensation-driven gamma rhythm.

Shin used a very precise machine to move whiskers slightly, just at the edge of a rodent's ability to detect movement, while recording neuron activity in the whisker-sensation part of the brain. She wanted to see what was different in the brain when the rodent was able detect the faint tapping of its whiskers compared to when it wasn't.

"We were particularly interested in a subtype of inhibitory interneurons; these cells communicate locally and their main function is to inhibit spikes from other cells," Shin said. "We found that about one third of these fast-spiking interneurons were 'ticking' very regularly. And ticking more regularly meant that the rodent was better able to perceive subtle sensations."

What made her research distinctive was that she looked at the behavior of individual neurons instead of averaged neuron activity. By looking at individual neurons, she found three distinct types.

Some of these neurons spiked independent of whisker sensations and thus would typically have been ignored by scientists -- this group included the subgroup of regularly spiking metronome neurons. The other two subtypes spiked randomly -- some did not change with whisker sensations, and others did. Additionally, Shin found that the metronome neurons in the touch region of the brain were in synch with one another.

"There's this funny thing where neuroscientists will go into a brain, and once they find a cell that responds to the outside world, they study it," Moore said. "If it doesn't respond to the outside world, they don't know what to do with it and ignore it. With an electrode in the brain you're hearing this and you're hearing that -- it's very easy to either overinterpret or miss important things entirely because you're not ready to see them."

However, Shin was ready to see these regularly spiking metronome neurons, Moore said. Prior to conducting the research, Shin conducted a deep review of the existing literature and used computer modeling to try to understand the logic of fast-spiking neurons, making this an excellent example of chance favoring the prepared mind.

Human brains also have gamma rhythms, Moore said. As a next step, he and Shin want to determine if these metronome neurons exist in primates and humans. They also want to see if metronome neurons exist in other brain regions, as well as determine if specifically enhancing the synchronicity of the metronome neurons using genetic engineering and light impacts rodents' ability to detect faint sensations.

Though metronome neurons are newly discovered, disruptions within the broader group -- fast-spiking interneurons -- have been implicated in a number of neurological disorders including autism, schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It is possible that some of these conditions are caused by disturbances of the metronome neuron subtype, but significantly more research is needed to understand how this subtype typically functions, let alone any variations in activity.

Described in 1981, the genus Biswamoyopterus is regarded as the most mysterious and rarest amongst all flying squirrels. It comprises two large (1.4-1.8 kg) species endemic to southern Asia: the Namdapha flying squirrel (India) and the Laotian giant flying squirrel (Lao PDR). Each is only known from a single specimen discovered in 1981 and 2013, respectively.

Recently, in 2018, a specimen identifiable as Biswamoyopterus was unexpectedly found in the collections of the Kunming Institute of Zoology (KIZ), Chinese Academy of Sciences by in-house expert Quan Li. It had been collected from Mount Gaoligong in Yunnan Province, Southwest China.

Initially, the individual was considered to belong to the "missing" Namdapha flying squirrel: a species considered as critically endangered due to hunting and habitat loss. The latter had not ever been recorded since its original description in 1981 and was already listed as one of the top 25 "most wanted" species in the world by the Global Wildlife Conservation.

However, a closer look at the specimen from KIZ made it clear that the squirrel exhibited a colouration, as well as skull and teeth anatomy, distinct from any of the previously known species in the genus.

Subsequently, joined by his colleagues from China (Xuelong Jiang, Xueyou Li, Fei Li, Ming Jiang, Wei Zhao and Wenyu Song) and Stephen Jackson from Australia, the team of Quan Li conducted a new field survey. Thus, they successfully obtained another specimen and, additionally, recorded observations of two other flying squirrels. As a result, they included a third member to the enigmatic genus: Biswamoyopterus gaoligongensis, also referred to as the Mount Gaoligong flying squirrel. This new to science species was described in a paper published in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

"The morphological features of B. gaoligongensis are closer to the critically endangered and missing Namdapha flying squirrel, but is still readily identifiable as a distinct species," explains Quan Li.

"The new species was discovered in the 'blank area' spanning 1,250 km between the isolated habitats of the two known species, which suggests that the genus is much more widespread than previously thought. There is still hope for new Biswamoyopterus populations to be discovered in between or right next to the already known localities," he says.

As for the conservation status of the newly described species, the researchers note that it inhabits low-altitude forests which are in close proximity to nearby human settlements. Thereby, they are vulnerable to anthropogenic threats, such as agricultural reclamation and poaching.

"Therefore, there is an urgent need to study the ecology, distribution, and conservation status of this rare and very beautiful genus," concludes the lead author.