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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., November 25, 2019--Extreme drought's impact on plants will become more dominant under future climate change, as noted in a paper out today in the journal Nature Climate Change. Analysis shows that not only will droughts become more frequent under future climates, but more of those events will be extreme, adding to the reduction of plant production essential to human and animal populations.

"Even though plants can, in many cases, benefit from increased levels of carbon dioxide that are predicted for the future atmosphere, the impact of severe drought on destroying these plants will be extreme, especially in the Amazon, South Africa, Mediterranean, Australia, and southwest USA," said lead study author Chonggang Xu of Los Alamos National Laboratory. Future drought events are typically associated with low humidity, low precipitation, high temperature, and changes in carbon released from fire disturbances.

The frequency of extreme droughts (defined by low plant-accessible soil water) per year is predicted to increase by a factor of ~3.8 under a high greenhouse-gas emission scenario and by a factor of ~3.1 under an intermediate greenhouse-gas emission scenario during 2075-2099, compared to the historical period of 1850-1999.

Drought is already the most widespread factor affecting plant production via direct physiological impacts such as water limitation and heat stress. But indirectly it also can have devastating effect, through increased frequency and intensity of disturbances such as fire and insect outbreaks that release large amounts of carbon back into the atmosphere.

Plants fix carbon dioxide into an ecosystem through photosynthesis, and this process plays a key role in the net carbon balance of the terrestrial biosphere that contributed to its regulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide. And even though higher carbon dioxide concentrations in future decades can help increase plant production, the combination of low soil water availability, heat stress, and disturbances associated with droughts could negate the benefits of such fertilization.

"Future plant production under elevated carbon dioxide levels remains highly uncertain despite our knowledge on carbon dioxide fertilization effects on plant productivity," Xu said.

The research team analyzed the outputs from 13 Earth System Models (ESMs) and the results show that due to a dramatic increase in the frequency of extreme droughts, the magnitude of globally-averaged reductions in plant production will be nearly tripled by the last quarter of this century relative to that of the study's historical period (1850-1999).

For plants living through mild or moderate droughts, the situation is not as dire. The problem is that more of the droughts that come will be the extreme ones. "Our analysis indicates a high risk of increasing impacts of extreme droughts on the global carbon cycle with atmospheric warming," Xu said, "At the same time though, this drought risk will be potentially mitigated by positive anomalies of plant production associated with favorable environmental conditions."

A transition from wild collection of herbs to forest farming needs to occur in Appalachia to make the opaque, unstable and unjust supply chain for forest medicinal plants such as ginseng sustainable, according to a team of researchers who have studied the market for more than a decade.

"In this case, 'sustainability' doesn't refer just to conservation, although it very much applies to the preservation of these valuable forest medicinal plants and the ecosystems in which they are found," said researcher Holly Chittum, a Penn State doctoral student in forest resources, who led the team. "But it also relates to social justice, equity and fair trade for the people at the base of the supply chain who harvest the plants."

Chittum, who is also project scientist with the American Herbal Products Association, noted that demand for forest botanicals has grown quickly in recent years, increasing by as much as 8% annually. Forest understory medicinal plants long have been wild-harvested for commerce, she said, and some of the most widely traded plants are native to the deciduous forests of the eastern United States -- with the Appalachian region serving as an epicenter of supply for as many as 50 medicinal plant species.

"Appalachia is really the only place that you can find some of these plants with the characteristics desired by certain types of consumers," Chittum said. "And if you are supplying the whole global market, for example with wild American ginseng, from populations in Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania -- there are concerns that it may not be sustainable."

In particular, there is a subset of medicinal plants that occur only or mostly on forestlands in eastern North America, and these plants are still nearly 100% sourced from the wild, noted researcher Eric Burkhart, instructor in ecosystem science and management in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

It is difficult to assess the impact of harvesting on wild medicinal plant populations, said Burkhart, also director of the Appalachian Botany and Ethnobotany Program at Penn State's Shaver's Creek Environmental Center.

"Unlike timber or other more generally recognized natural resources, what is happening to these wild plant populations is not generally known," he said. "That means that the supply, rate of removal and rate of regeneration are all uncertain."

In addition, Burkhart noted, some plants such as ginseng increasingly are managed or cultivated on forestlands.

"Which means that while it arguably can be said that some people are negatively impacting wild populations through harvesting, others may in fact be countering such impacts by tending and cultivating these plants on forestlands," he said. "And so, the story is a complicated one."

Wild-harvested plant roots, rhizomes and tops typically are brought to root buyers, country stores, taxidermy shops, metal shops, convenience stores, bait and tackle shops, gas stations, and the like, Burkhart explained. Those small businesses consolidate product in their areas, and then regional aggregators buy from them and sell to companies, international traders or manufacturers.

"So, in many cases there is no transparency in the current supply chain, and companies and consumers don't really know where the ginseng, black cohosh, goldenseal or other forest medicinal plants came from," he said. "As a result, consumers and a growing number of companies have legitimate concerns about the quality of the product, and wild stocks of plants such as ginseng are being overharvested and can't meet long-term demand pressures."

Encouraging and supporting wild collectors and supply chains to shift toward forest farming production practices and stewardship would begin to solve many of the problems in the supply chain, the researchers concluded in a report recently published in HerbalGram.

The researchers contend forest farming would result not only in better quality herbal products but also a better lifestyle for wild harvesters and forest farmers by generating a reliable and stable income and supply chain.

There is a huge social equity component to the supply chain of forest medicinals, Chittum suggested.

"There needs to be equity for the wild harvesters who currently are not getting a fair price for raw product that in most cases takes many years to grow," she said. "So, there is little incentive for many of them to act in a sustainable way and conserve stocks of wild plants."

With growing demand for accountability, transparency and sustainability within the herbal marketplace, consumers will continue to have more choices, including forest-farmed and certified sustainably wild-crafted products, the researchers reported. Forest farming is a model for the future of forest botanical supply chains, and with the right investments and support from herbal companies and customers, it could be a game changer for the herbal products industry.

Concussion, the most common form of traumatic brain injury, has been linked to an increased risk of depression and suicide in adults. Now new research published by The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) suggests high school students with a history of sports-related concussions might be at an increased risk for suicide completion.

The research, which recently appeared in the November issue of the Journal of Affective Disorders, examined the link between self-reported history of concussion and risk factors for suicide completion. It was the first study to include a nationally representative sample of high school students. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the second-leading cause of death in Americans ages 10 to 34.

"It's important to remember that when it comes to concussions, there's no visual test to confirm them. Unfortunately, you can't take your child to have a lab test done to diagnose one," said Dale Mantey, the study's lead author, a doctoral student at UTHealth School of Public Health in Austin.

Common symptoms of a concussion include loss of consciousness, headache, confusion, and change in mood.

The study examined survey data collected from more than 13,000 high school students in the United States. Participants were asked if they had received a concussion related to sports or physical activity in the last year, as well as a range of questions to measure potential suicidal behaviors. Approximately 15% of students surveyed reported having suffered a concussion.

Researchers discovered that teenagers who reported having a concussion in the last year were more likely to report feelings of depression, suicidal ideations, and planned or previous suicide attempts. Of the portion of students who reported a history of concussions, approximately 36% reported they had felt sad or hopeless (compared to 31.1% of all teens) and around 21% had thoughts of suicide (compared to 17%).

Male participants with a reported concussion in the last year were twice as likely to report having attempted suicide and three times more likely to report a history of receiving medical treatment for an attempted suicide than those who did not have a recent concussion.

The study also revealed female students with a history of concussions had greater odds to report all risk factors of suicide. They were more likely to have reported feeling sad or hopeless, having suicidal ideations, a planned suicide attempt, having attempted suicide, and were twice as likely to indicate a history of receiving medical treatment for an attempted suicide compared to females who did not report a concussion in the last year. A recently published article in the journal Pediatrics revealed female high school athletes have higher concussion rates than their male counterparts.

The researchers noted that while the study did control for commonly associated suicide risk factors like sexual orientation and a history of being bullied, it did not account for other risk factors like drug or alcohol use. There were no measures of preconcussion mental health for survey participants.

"Concussions are a traumatic brain injury and they are even worse for young people with developing brains," said Steven H. Kelder, PhD, MPH, senior author and Beth Toby Grossman Distinguished Professor in Spirituality and Healing at UTHealth School of Public Health in Austin. "These injuries can have long-term effects such as memory issues and sleep disturbances."

According to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, warning signs of suicide can include talking about feeling hopeless, withdrawing or social isolation, extreme mood swings, and reckless or anxious behavior.

"Everyone needs to be aware of the warning signs and the risks that come with concussions - parents, teachers, coaches, but also the students themselves," Mantey said. "If there is any concern that a child may have suffered a concussion, it is critical to seek medical attention. If a child is diagnosed with a concussion, everyone in their support network should look for changes in mood or behavior that may be warning signs of reduced mental well-being."

A study involving scientists at the University of Arizona and the University of Queensland provides new insight into how the small brains of mantis shrimp - fierce predators with keen vision that are among the fastest strikers in the animal kingdom - are able to make sense of a breathtaking amount of visual input.

The researchers examined the neuronal organization of mantis shrimp, which are among the top predatory animals of coral reefs and other shallow warm water environments.

The research team discovered a region of the mantis shrimp brain they called the reniform ("kidney-shaped") body. The discovery sheds new light on how the crustaceans may process and integrate visual information with other sensory input.

Mantis shrimp sport the most complex visual system of any living animal. They are unique in that they have a pair of eyes that move independently of each other, each with stereoscopic vision and possessing a band of photoreceptors that can distinguish up to 12 different wavelengths as well as linear and circular polarized light. Humans, by comparison, can only perceive three wavelengths - red, green and blue.

Therefore, mantis shrimp have much more spectral information entering their brains than humans do. Mantis shrimp seem to be able to process all of the different channels of information with the participation of the reniform body, a region of the animal's brain found in the eye stalks that support its two protruding eyes.

Researchers Hanne Thoen and Justin Marshall at Queensland Brain Institute at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, teamed up with Nicholas Strausfeld at the University of Arizona, as well as scientists from Lund University in Sweden and the University of Washington in the U.S. to gain a better understanding of how the reniform bodies connect to other parts of the mantis shrimp brain and gather clues to their functional roles.

Using a variety of imaging techniques, the team traced connections made by neurons in the reniform body and discovered that it contains a number of distinct, interacting subsections. One particular subunit is connected to a deep visual center called the lobula, which is structurally comparable to a simplified visual cortex.

"This arrangement may allow mantis shrimp to store quite high-level visual information," said Strausfeld, senior author of the paper that was published in the Journal of Comparative Neurology.

"Mantis shrimp most likely use these subsections of the reniform body to process different types of color information coming in and organize it in a way that makes sense to the rest of the brain," said lead author Thoen. "This would enable them to interpret a large amount of visual information very quickly."

One of the study's crucial findings was that neural connections link the reniform bodies to centers called mushroom bodies, iconic structures of arthropod brains that are required for olfactory learning and memory.

"The fact that we were now able to demonstrate that the reniform body is also connected to the mushroom body and provides information to it, suggests that olfactory processing may take place in the context of already established visual memories," said Strausfeld, Regents Professor of neuroscience and director of the Center for Insect Science at the University of Arizona.

The discovery of the reniform body, however, is not limited to mantis shrimp. It has been identified in other species as well, including shore crabs, shrimp and crayfish.

In 2016, an Argentinian group discovered that, in crabs, what are now known as reniform bodies act as secondary centers for learning and memory. According to Strausfeld, this suggests that the formation and storage of memories occurs in at least two different and discrete sites in the brain of the mantis shrimp and likely other members of malacostracans, the largest class of crustaceans. In addition to mantis shrimp, malacostracans include crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and other less familiar species that together account for about 40,000 living species and a great diversity of body forms.

Reniform bodies have not been identified in insects and may be uniquely crustacean attributes, the researchers say. Alternatively, they might be homologous to a structure found in insect brains called the lateral horn, which sits between the optic lobes and the mushroom bodies. Strausfeld pointed out that fruit fly research done by other groups showed that the lateral horn is crucial in assigning values to learned olfactory information.

"The hunt is now on to determine if insects have a homologous center," he said. "If we are looking for homologs in other arthropods, the reniform body would be the obvious candidate."

Versatile compounds called perovskites are valued for their application in next generation solar energy technologies. Despite their efficiency and relative cheapness, perovskite devices have yet to be perfected; they often contain atomic-level structural defects.

Professor Yabing Qi and his team in the Energy Materials and Surface Sciences Unit at OIST, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, USA, have, for the first time, characterized the structural defects that prompt the movement of ions, destabilizing the perovskite materials. The researchers' findings, published in ACS Nano, may inform future engineering approaches to optimize perovskite solar cells.

"For a long time, scientists have known structural defects exist, but didn't understand their precise chemical nature," said Collin Stecker, an OIST PhD student and the first author of the study. "Our study delves into fundamental characteristics of perovskite materials to help device engineers further improve them."

Surface-level issues

Perovskite compounds share a unique structure that makes them useful in electronics, engineering, and photovoltaics. They are exceptional at absorbing light, as well as generating and transporting charge carriers responsible for current in semiconductor materials. Sandwiching perovskite materials between other functional layers forms perovskite solar cells. However, defects in the perovskite layer can disrupt charge transfer between the perovskite and adjacent layers of the cell, hindering the device's overall performance and stability.

To understand the electronic and dynamic properties of these perovskite defects, the OIST researchers used a method called scanning tunneling microscopy to take high-resolution images of the movements of individual ions on the perovskite surfaces.

Upon analyzing these images, Stecker and his colleagues noticed groups of vacant spaces across the surfaces where atoms were missing. In addition, they saw that pairs of Br- (bromide) ions on the perovskite surfaces were shifting and changing direction. The researchers' collaborators at the University of Pittsburgh performed a series of theoretical calculations to model the pathways these ions took, supporting these experimental observations.

The OIST scientists concluded that the surface vacancies were likely causing these ions to move across the perovskite materials. Understanding this mechanism of ion movement may later help scientists and engineers mitigate the structural and functional consequences of these defects.

The researchers acknowledged that, although perovskites are promising alternatives to the widely used silicon, the technology needs to be refined before it's commercialized.

"These perovskite surfaces are much more dynamic than we previously anticipated," said Stecker. "Now, with these new findings, we hope engineers can better account for the effect of defects and their motion in order to improve devices."

As Australia confronts devastating bushfire conditions, people across the nation are doing all they can to ensure the safety of their homes, property and loved ones.

But while many individuals are responding well to bushfire risks, a lack of preparation on the community level could be hampering their efforts, according to new research from the University of South Australia.

Conducted in partnership with the University of Adelaide and the University of Minnesota, researchers examined the perceptions of almost 1000 residents, landowners, and local fire and environmental authorities across high-risk fire regions of South Australia, finding a significant disconnect between the bushfire preparedness of individuals and that of the broader community.

Lead researcher Associate Professor Delene Weber says the lack of a cohesive community fire protection plan could place thousands of residents in danger over the fire season.

"Communities need to start thinking differently about preparing for bushfires, going beyond their individual fire protection plans, and looking to ways they can further support the community," Assoc Prof Weber says.

"When people think about protecting themselves from bushfires, they naturally focus on their immediate surrounds - their home, property and family - but bushfire safety is far more than the sum of individual efforts.

"Know your community's fire safety plans, make sure you check in on elderly or disabled neighbours who don't have capacity to get their property safe and talk with neighbours who are new to Australia and may not be fully aware of the potential of fire dangers.

"These things are imperative for people living in high-risk regional areas but are also important for those living in peri-urban landscapes such as the Eyre Peninsula and Adelaide Hills, both of which are increasingly at risk."

With more than 1.85 million Australians living in peri-urban regions, there's a growing need for greater bushfire awareness in metropolitan fringe areas.

"Residents and authorities have told us - and previous bushfires have shown us ¬- that inadequate communication between developers, emergency services and planning authorities in metropolitan fringe areas means these areas are not as fire safe as they could be," Assoc Prof Weber says.

"Conscientious planning is vital for protecting all communities - established and new. But for new communities we have opportunities to construct homes specifically for bushfire conditions, to plant streets with appropriate vegetation that can help protect our homes from ember attacks, and to plan roads with better access.

"Well-planned transport systems are vital, and they need to be managed appropriately. Authorities must also ensure that scheduled road maintenance or closures are done outside of peak fire periods, and endeavour to manage road incidents smoothly and efficiently. Small oversights in either of these spaces can have very high consequences."

An ongoing challenge for peri-urban communities is the fact that many residents do not realise they may be at risk of bushfires, or grass fires, which move more quickly.

"People move to areas outside the city for many reasons - for the greenery, to escape the hustle and bustle, or because of costs. But because they're still in built-up, residential areas, they don't perceive themselves to be at-risk of fires.

"As a result, some residents in peri-urban developments are not as informed as they should be about bushfires, and they don't tend to be as prepared.

"It is not good enough to have a bushfire survival plan in your head - people need to take the time to prepare a written plan and think about the likely scenarios, such as no power, not knowing where everyone in your household is, and not being about to use your phone.

"Bushfire safety is everyone's responsibility. We all have to pitch in, and we all have to look out for one another. One weak link and the results could be devastating."

SEATTLE, November 23, 2019 -- Trapped water in the ear canal can cause infection and even damage, but it turns out that one of the most common methods people use to get rid of water in their ears can also cause complications. Researchers at Cornell University and Virginia Tech show shaking the head to free trapped water can cause brain damage in small children.

Anuj Baskota, Seungho Kim, Hosung Kang, and Sunghwan Jung will present their findings at the American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics 72nd Annual Meeting on Nov. 23 at 4:15 p.m. The conference takes place at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle on Nov. 23-26, 2019.

"Our research mainly focuses on the acceleration required to get the water out of the ear canal," said Baskota. "The critical acceleration that we obtained experimentally on glass tubes and 3D printed ear canals was around the range of 10 times the force of gravity for infant ear sizes, which could cause damage to the brain."

For adults, the acceleration was lower due to the larger diameter of the ear canals. They said the overall volume and position of the water in the canal changes the acceleration needed to remove it.

"From our experiments and theoretical model, we figured out that surface tension of the fluid is one of the crucial factors promoting the water to get stuck in ear canals," said Baskota.

Luckily, the researchers said there is a solution that does not involve any head shaking.

"Presumably, putting a few drops of a liquid with lower surface tension than water, like alcohol or vinegar, in the ear would reduce the surface tension force allowing the water to flow out," Baskota said.

CLEVELAND--Scientists from the Case Western Reserve University digital imaging lab, already pioneering the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to predict whether chemotherapy will be successful, can now determine which lung-cancer patients will benefit from expensive immunotherapy.

And, once again, they're doing it by teaching a computer to find previously unseen changes in patterns in CT scans taken when the lung cancer is first diagnosed compared to scans taken after the first 2-3 cycles of immunotherapy treatment. And, as with previous work, those changes have been discovered both inside--and outside--the tumor, a signature of the lab's recent research.

"This is no flash in the pan--this research really seems to be reflecting something about the very biology of the disease, about which is the more aggressive phenotype, and that's information oncologists do not currently have," said Anant Madabhushi, whose Center for Computational Imaging and Personalized Diagnostics (CCIPD) has become a global leader in the detection, diagnosis and characterization of various cancers and other diseases by meshing medical imaging, machine learning and AI.

Currently, only about 20% of all cancer patients will actually benefit from immunotherapy, a treatment that differs from chemotherapy in that it uses drugs to help your immune system fight cancer, while chemotherapy uses drugs to directly kill cancer cells, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Madabhushi said the recent work by his lab would help oncologists know which patients would actually benefit from the therapy, and who would not.

"Even though immunotherapy has changed the entire ecosystem of cancer, it also remains extremely expensive--about $200,000 per patient, per year," Madabhushi said. "That's part of the financial toxicity that comes along with cancer and results in about 42% of all new diagnosed cancer patients losing their life savings within a year of diagnosis."

Having a tool based on the research being done now by his lab would go a long way toward "doing a better job of matching up which patients will respond to immunotherapy instead of throwing $800,000 down the drain," he added, referencing the four patients out of five who will not benefit, multiplied by annual estimated cost.

New research published

The new research, led by co-authors Mohammadhadi Khorrami and Prateek Prasanna, along with Madabhushi and 10 other collaborators from six different institutions (see list, below) was published this month in the journal Cancer Immunology Research.

Khorrami, a graduate student working at the CCIPD, said one of the more significant advances in the research was the ability of the computer program to note the changes in texture, volume and shape of a given lesion, not just its size.

"This is important because when a doctor decides based on CT images alone whether a patient has responded to therapy, it is often based on the size of the lesion," Khorrami said. "We have found that textural change is a better predictor of whether the therapy is working.

"Sometimes, for example, the nodule may appear larger after therapy because of another reason, say a broken vessel inside the tumor--but the therapy is actually working. Now, we have a way of knowing that."

Prasanna, a postdoctoral research associate in Madabhushi's lab, said the study also showed that the results were consistent across scans of patients treated at two different sites and with three different types of immunotherapy agents.

"This is a demonstration of the fundamental value of the program, that our machine-learning model could predict response in patients treated with different immune checkpoint inhibitors," he said. "We are dealing with a fundamental biological principal."

Prasanna said the initial study used CT scans from 50 patients to train the computer and create a mathematical algorithm to identify the changes in the lesion. He said the next step will be to test the program on cases obtained from other sites and across different immunotherapy agents. This research recently won an ASCO 2019 Conquer Cancer Foundation Merit Award.

Additionally, Madabhushi said, researchers were able show that the patterns on the CT scans which were most associated with a positive response to treatment and with overall patient survival were also later found to be closely associated with the arrangement of immune cells on the original diagnostic biopsies of those patients.

This suggests that those CT scans actually appear to capturing the immune response elicited by the tumors against the invasion of the cancer--and that the ones with the strongest immune response were showing the most significant textural change and most importantly, would best respond to the immunotherapy, he said.

Madabhushi established the CCIPD at Case Western Reserve in 2012. The lab now includes nearly 60 researchers.

Some of the lab's most recent work, in collaboration with New York University and Yale University, has used AI to predict which lung cancer patients would benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy based on tissue-slide images. That advancement was named by Prevention Magazine as one of the top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2018.

An international team of scientists, led by the University of Manchester, has developed a metal-organic framework, or MOF, material that provides a selective, fully reversible and repeatable capability to capture a toxic air pollutant, nitrogen dioxide, produced by combusting diesel and other fossil fuels.

The material then requires only water and air to convert the captured gas into nitric acid for industrial use. The mechanism for the record-breaking gas uptake by the MOF, characterized by researchers using neutron scattering at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, could lead to air pollution control and remediation technologies that cost-effectively remove the pollutant from the air and convert it into nitric acid for use in producing fertilizer, rocket propellant, nylon and other products.

As reported in Nature Chemistry, the material, denoted as MFM-520, can capture atmospheric nitrogen dioxide at ambient pressures and temperatures--even at low concentrations and during flow--in the presence of moisture, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. Despite the highly reactive nature of the pollutant, MFM-520 proved capable of being fully regenerated multiple times by degassing or by treatment with water from the air--a process that also converts the nitrogen dioxide into nitric acid.

"To our knowledge, this is the first MOF to both capture and convert a toxic, gaseous air pollutant into a useful industrial commodity," said Sihai Yang, one of the study's lead authors and a senior lecturer at Manchester's Department of Chemistry. "It is also interesting that the highest rate of NO2 uptake by this material occurs at around 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 degrees Centigrade), which is about the temperature of automobile exhausts."

Martin Schröder, a lead author of the study, professor of chemistry and vice-president of the University of Manchester, said, "The global market for nitric acid in 2016 was USD $2.5 billion, so there is a lot of potential for manufacturers of this MOF technology to recoup their costs and profit from the resulting nitric acid production. Especially since the only additives required are water and air."

As part of the research, the scientists used neutron spectroscopy and computational techniques at ORNL to precisely characterize how MFM-520 captures nitrogen dioxide molecules.

"This project is an excellent example of using neutron science to study the structure and activity of molecules inside porous materials," said Timmy Ramirez-Cuesta, co-author and coordinator for the chemistry and catalysis initiative at ORNL's Neutron Sciences Directorate. "Thanks to the penetrating power of neutrons, we tracked how the nitrogen dioxide molecules arranged and moved inside the pores of the material, and studied the effects they had on the entire MOF structure. What made these observations possible is the VISION vibrational spectrometer at ORNL's Spallation Neutron Source, which has the highest sensitivity and resolution of its kind in the world."

The ability of neutrons to penetrate solid metal to probe the interactions between the nitrogen dioxide molecules and MFM-520 is helping the researchers validate a computer model of MOF gas separation and conversion processes. Such a model could help predict how to produce and tailor other materials to capture a variety of different gases.

"Neutron vibrational spectroscopy is a unique tool to study adsorption and reaction mechanisms and guest-host interactions at the molecular level, especially when combined with computer simulation," said Yongqiang Cheng, an ORNL neutron scattering scientist and co-author. "The interaction between the nitrogen dioxide molecules and MOF causes extremely small changes in their vibrational behavior. Such changes can only be recognized when the computer model accurately predicts them."

"The characterization of the mechanism responsible for the high, rapid uptake of NO2 will inform future designs of improved materials to capture air pollutants," said Jiangnan Li, first author and doctoral student at the University of Manchester. "The post-treatment of the captured nitrogen dioxide avoids the need to sequester or process the gas and provides future direction for clean air technologies."

Capturing greenhouse and toxic gases from the atmosphere has been a challenge because of their relatively low concentrations and because water in the air competes with and can often negatively affect the separation of targeted gas molecules from other gases. Another issue was finding a practical way to filter out and convert captured gases into useful, value-added products. The MFM-520 MOF material offers solutions to many of these challenges.

MIT researchers have improved on a transparent, conductive coating material, producing a tenfold gain in its electrical conductivity. When incorporated into a type of high-efficiency solar cell, the material increased the cell's efficiency and stability.

The new findings are reported in the journal Science Advances, in a paper by MIT postdoc Meysam Heydari Gharahcheshmeh, professors Karen Gleason and Jing Kong, and three others.

"The goal is to find a material that is electrically conductive as well as transparent," Gleason explains, which would be "useful in a range of applications, including touch screens and solar cells." The material most widely used today for such purposes is known as ITO, for indium titanium oxide, but that material is quite brittle and can crack after a period of use, she says.

Gleason and her co-researchers improved a flexible version of a transparent, conductive material two years ago and published their findings, but this material still fell well short of matching ITO's combination of high optical transparency and electrical conductivity. The new, more ordered material, she says, is more than 10 times better than the previous version.

The combined transparency and conductivity is measured in units of Siemens per centimeter. ITO ranges from 6,000 to 10,000, and though nobody expected a new material to match those numbers, the goal of the research was to find a material that could reach at least a value of 35. The earlier publication exceeded that by demonstrating a value of 50, and the new material has leapfrogged that result, now clocking in at 3,000; the team is still working on fine-tuning the process to raise that further.

The high-performing flexible material, an organic polymer known as PEDOT, is deposited in an ultrathin layer just a few nanometers thick, using a process called oxidative chemical vapor deposition (oCVD). This process results in a layer where the structure of the tiny crystals that form the polymer are all perfectly aligned horizontally, giving the material its high conductivity. Additionally, the oCVD method can decrease the stacking distance between polymer chains within the crystallites, which also enhances electrical conductivity.

To demonstrate the material's potential usefulness, the team incorporated a layer of the highly aligned PEDOT into a perovskite-based solar cell. Such cells are considered a very promising alternative to silicon because of their high efficiency and ease of manufacture, but their lack of durability has been a major drawback. With the new oCVD aligned PEDOT, the perovskite's efficiency improved and its stability doubled.

In the initial tests, the oCVD layer was applied to substrates that were 6 inches in diameter, but the process could be applied directly to a large-scale, roll-to-roll industrial scale manufacturing process, Heydari Gharahcheshmeh says. "It's now easy to adapt for industrial scale-up," he says. That's facilitated by the fact that the coating can be processed at 140 degrees Celsius -- a much lower temperature than alternative materials require.

The oCVD PEDOT is a mild, single-step process, enabling direct deposition onto plastic substrates, as desired for flexible solar cells and displays. In contrast, the aggressive growth conditions of many other transparent conductive materials require an initial deposition on a different, more robust substrate, followed by complex processes to lift off the layer and transfer it to plastic.

Because the material is made by a dry vapor deposition process, the thin layers produced can follow even the finest contours of a surface, coating them all evenly, which could be useful in some applications. For example, it could be coated onto fabric and cover each fiber but still allow the fabric to breathe.

The team still needs to demonstrate the system at larger scales and prove its stability over longer periods and under different conditions, so the research is ongoing. But "there's no technical barrier to moving this forward. It's really just a matter of who will invest to take it to market," Gleason says.

A toxic pollutant produced by burning fossil fuels can be captured from the exhaust gas stream and converted into useful industrial chemicals using only water and air thanks to a new advanced material developed by an international team of scientists.

New research led by The University of Manchester, has developed a metal-organic framework (MOF) material that provides a selective, fully reversible and repeatable capability to capture nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a toxic air pollutant produced particularly by diesel and bio-fuel use. The NO2 can then be easily converted into nitric acid, a multi-billion dollar industry with uses including, agricultural fertilizer for crops; rocket propellant and nylon.

MOFs are tiny three-dimensional structures which are porous and can trap gasses inside, acting like cages. The internal empty spaces in MOFs can be vast for their size, just one gram of material can have a surface area equivalent to a football pitch.

The highly efficient mechanism in this new MOF was characterised by researchers using neutron scattering and synchrotron X-ray diffraction at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Berkeley National Laboratory, respectively. The team also used the National Service for Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Spectroscopy at Manchester to study the mechanism of adsorption of NO2 in MFM-520. The technology could lead to air pollution control and help remedy the negative impact nitrogen dioxide has on the environment.

Asin Nature Chemistry, the material, named MFM-520, can capture nitrogen dioxide at ambient pressures and temperatures--even at low concentrations and during flow--in the presence of moisture, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. Despite the highly reactive nature of the pollutant, MFM-520 proved capable of being fully regenerated multiple times by degassing or by treatment with water in air--a process that also converts the nitrogen dioxide into nitric acid.

"This is the first MOF to both capture and convert a toxic, gaseous air pollutant into a useful industrial commodity." said Dr Sihai Yang, a lead author and a senior lecturer at The University of Manchester's Department of Chemistry. "It is also interesting that the highest rate of NO2 uptake by this MOF occurs at around 45 degrees Centigrade, which is about the temperature of automobile exhausts."

Professor and Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering at The University of Manchester Martin Schröder, a lead author of the study, said: "The global market for nitric acid in 2016 was USD $2.5 billion, so there is a lot of potential for manufacturers of this MOF technology to recoup their costs and profit from the resulting nitric acid production. Especially since the only additives required are water and air."

As part of the research, the scientists used neutron spectroscopy and computational techniques at ORNL to precisely characterize how MFM-520 captures nitrogen dioxide molecules.

"This project is an excellent example of using neutron science to study the structure and activity of molecules inside porous materials," said Timmy Ramirez-Cuesta, co-author and coordinator for the chemistry and catalysis initiative at ORNL's Neutron Sciences Directorate. "Thanks to the penetrating power of neutrons, we tracked how the nitrogen dioxide molecules arranged and moved inside the pores of the material, and studied the effects they had on the entire MOF structure."

"The characterisation of the mechanism responsible for the high, rapid uptake of NO2 will inform future designs of improved materials to capture air pollutants." said Jiangnan Li, the first author and a PhD student at The University of Manchester.

In the past, capturing greenhouse and toxic gases from the atmosphere was a challenge because of their relatively low concentrations and because water in the air competes and can often affect negatively the separation of targeted gas molecules from other gases. Another issue was finding a practical way to filter out and convert captured gases into useful, value-added products. The MFM-520 material offers solutions to many of these challenges.

The growing demands on the high-performance energy-storage system for emerging technologies such as electric vehicles and artificial intelligence drive the development of high-performance batteries. As a promising candidate of next-generation batteries, Li-S batteries have been drawn much attention carrying a high specific capacity (1675 mAh g-1) and energy density (2600 Wh kg-1). However, the diffusion of polysulfide in electrolyte cause changes in the structure of the sulfur cathode during discharge-charge cycles, which greatly limits the commercial applications of Li-S batteries.

Polymer binder, as an essential component of electrode, acts to bond the active material and are related to the performance of batteries. Unfortunately, the conventional binder has failed to meet the requirements of emerging batteries. For example, the PVDF binder exhibits low ionic conductivity of Li-ions, poor mechanical stability, and almost none inhibition on the shuttle of polysulfide, these factors limit the applications of Li-S batteries. Therefore, an ideal polymer binder which overcomes the drawback of conventional binders is urgently needed for Li-S batteries.

In a new research published in the Beijing-based National Science Review, scientists at the Soochow Institute for Energy and Materials Innovations for Lithium-sulfur battery in Suzhou, China present the latest advances in Single Lithium-ion Channel Polymer Binder for Li-S battery. Co-authors Chaoqun Niu, Jie Liu, Xiaowei Shen, Jinqiu Zhou, Tao Qian and Chenglin Yan report a novel polymer binder with single lithium-ions channels allowing fast lithium-ions transport while blocking the shuttle of polysulfide anions. This study reports a new avenue to assemble a polymer binder with single lithium-ion channel for solving the serious problem of energy attenuation of Li-S batteries.

These scientists confirme the effect of the prepared polymer binder on Li-S batteries by monitoring polysulfide concentration in the electrolyte and device capacity retention in real time during the cycle. "The polymer binder is confirmed to effectively immobilize the shuttle effect of polysulfide intermediates by the in-situ UV-vis measurement." "Moreover, the excellent adhesion and mechanical stability of prepared binder maintain the structure integrity of sulfide cathode after discharge-charge cycles. These results demonstrate that the promising improvement of Li-S battery by the prepared binder and we believe the reported polymer binder with single Li-ion channels is one of the most effective strategies for the high-energy Li-S batteries."

In recent years, rechargeable magnesium batteries (RMBs) have attracted a growing number of researchers in the field of electrochemical energy storage systems due to several inherent strengths. First of all, Mg metal possesses higher abundance in earth crust and volumetric capacity (3833 mAh cm-3) compared with metallic lithium. More importantly, air/moisture stability and dendrite-free morphology upon cycling can provide considerable merits over the reviving lithium metal batteries (LMBs) for large-scale energy storage systems and electric vehicles. However, the uppermost problem stems from the fact that Mg metal anodes with intrinsically high activity are apt to react with conventional electrolyte components (solvents or salts), forming a passivation film on the surface (especially at high current densities), which impedes the conduction of Mg ions in the interphase. Although significant progress has been made in designing various electrolyte systems, rare research concerning Mg anode modification was proposed.

In this article, researchers report a modified Mg metal anode via a safe, facile and effective method to address the issue of irreversible plating/stripping behavior in a conventional electrolyte (Mg(TFSI)2/DME electrolyte). The modified Mg anode was prepared by a facile surface ion-exchange reaction in SnCl2-DME solution, forming a coating layer comprised of tin-based compounds (e.g. Mg2Sn, Sn, etc.) and electronically insulating halides.

Upon cycling, the coating layer could remain compositionally and structurally invariant. Besides, the interfacial resistance and ion transport activation energy were sharply reduced and fast ion diffusion kinetics was performed on the modified Mg anodes. For the artificial layers, the Sn-based compounds provide fast ion transport conduit for Mg ions, showing a high diffusion coefficient of Mg2+, and the insulating halides offer potential gradient to drive Mg ions to electrodeposit under the coating film and prevent plating on the surface. The synergistic effects of Sn-based compounds and insulating halides lead to better electrochemical performance in RMBs. The symmetric Mg/Mg cells with modified Mg anodes exhibit a quite low overpotential (0.2 V) and an ultralong lifespan over 4000 cycles (1400 h) even at a high current density of 6 mA cm-2, which is the most excellent performance to the best of our knowledge. Moreover, cells with modified electrodes paired with TiS2 cathode can be cycled at a current density of 10 mA g-1.

Indeed, the stable artificial layer enable fast ionic transport and reversible plating/stripping process at high current densities in a conventional electrolyte. Researchers perceive that this work can stimulate more research on modifying Mg anodes with other available Mg2+-conducting metals or alloys through ex situ or in situ methods. It should have significant applications in rechargeable magnesium batteries.

Singapore, 23 November 2019 - The trastuzumab biosimilar HLX02 achieved similar overall response rate to reference trastuzumab in women with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive (HER2+) recurrent or previously untreated metastatic breast cancer, according to a large, randomised phase III study reported at the ESMO Asia 2019 Congress. (1)

"Trastuzumab is not widely accessible around the world due to its high cost. The entry of more affordable versions of trastuzumab such as HLX02 could open up treatment access," said study first author Binghe Xu, Department of Medical Oncology, Cancer Hospital Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.

The anti-HER2 antibody trastuzumab given in combination with chemotherapy has significantly improved overall survival in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer and become the standard of care over the past decade. However, the cost can limit patient access to this treatment in regions with limited financial resources for healthcare. (2)

The development of biosimilars, which are medicinal products containing a similar version of the active substance of their biological originator or reference product and are derived from living organisms, (3) offers a way of improving access to cancer treatments by increasing treatment options and reducing cost. (4)

The new study randomised women with HER2-positive breast cancer to HLX02, a fully humanised anti-HER2 that was developed in China as a trastuzumab biosimilar, or to reference trastuzumab sourced from the European Union.

"Overall response rate at week 24 was similar for HLX02 and reference trastuzumab with no statistical difference observed between the two treatment groups," reported Xu. The rates of adverse events and treatment emergent adverse events were similar for HLX02 and reference trastuzumab and there were no differences in safety profiles or immunogenicity.

"HLX02 is equally safe and effective as the reference trastuzumab and has been rigorously evaluated by regulatory authorities such as the European Medicines Agency (EMA), based on sound scientific principles," said Xu. He added, "HLX02 has a clear potential to drive down spending on HER2+ cancer treatment," although he said the price has not yet been agreed.

Commenting on the relevance of the new data, Rosa Giuliani, Consultant Medical Oncologist, Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, Liverpool, UK, said: "The development of biosimilars is important both for patients, by improving access to cancer drugs, and for health systems, allowing cost savings that can be re-invested in patient care and support the sustainability of healthcare systems." She noted that other trastuzumab biosimilars have been approved in Europe so the potential approval of China-produced HLX02 would add a further option.

Giuliani warned: "Access to cancer medicines is a huge problem throughout the world, applying to relatively inexpensive medicines but even more to more expensive drugs such as monclonal antibodies. A survey carried out by ESMO in 2016 and the subsequent follow-up study showed that many patients in different countries, including Europe, have difficulty in accessing cancer medicines. What is even more astonishing is that this includes medicines listed in the World Health Organization's (WHO) Essential Medicines List, such as trastuzumab. (5) It is not acceptable that medicines which have shown to have a major impact on patients survival are not given to patients in need. Biosimilars are safe and effective drugs which can finally allow those patients to receive an appropriate standard of care."

Rebecca Dent, Head of Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Center Singapore, added: "The development of biosimilars means that more women will have access to potentially life-saving HER2-targeted therapies because of the cost-savings they provide. Development of biosimilars introduces competition and potentially lowers the price of drugs."

Dent added, "As more biosimilar therapies are being developed there is also a need for vertical integration of the biomarkers that identify patients who will benefit." For trastuzumab biosimilars this means ensuring access to HER2 status testing.

Reviewing the quality of the study design, Dent considered it important that the clinical programme with HLX02 was developed in consultation with the EMA and the China National Medical Products Administration (NMPA). The interim results of the study have been submitted to the NMPA and EMA to support approval of HLX02 in China and Europe.

Study results

The phase III study randomised 649 women with HER2+ recurrent or previously untreated metastatic breast cancer to HLX02 or EU-sourced trastuzumab (EU-TZB) (dose of 8mg/kg for both drugs) with docetaxel on day 1. Cycle 1 was followed by a dose of 6mg/kg in three-weekly cycles for up to 12 months. The women were recruited from 89 centres in China, the Philippines, Poland and Ukraine.

Result showed similar overall response rate at 24 weeks with HLX02 (71.0%) as with EU-TZB (71.4%, p=0.952). The risk difference in overall response rates between the two groups was -0.4% (95% confidence interval [CI] -7.4, 6.6), which was within the predefined margin (Plus-minus 13.5%).

All secondary endpoints, including overall response rates at weeks 6, 12 and 18, clinical benefit rate, disease control rate, duration of response, progression-free survival and overall survival at week 24 were similar for HLX02 and EU-TZB. The disease control rate was 83.0% in the HLX02 group and 84.3% in the reference trastuzumab group (p=0.646). The median progression-free survival with HLX02 was 11.7 months compared to 9.69 months with trastuzumab (p=0.079).

In each treatment group 98.8% of the patients reported at least one adverse event or treatment emergent adverse event and a similar number of adverse events were reported in the two treatment groups. There were no differences in safety profiles or immunogenicity between HLX02 and reference trastuzumab.

Smaller, faster, more energy-efficient - this is the goal that developers of electronic devices have been working towards for years. In order to be able to miniaturize individual components of mobile phones or computers for example, magnetic waves are currently regarded as promising alternatives to conventional data transmission functioning by means of electric currents. The reason: As chips become smaller and smaller, electrical data transmission at some point reaches its limits, because electrons that are very close to each other give off a lot of heat - which can lead to a disruption of physical processes.

High-frequency magnetic waves, by contrast, can propagate in even the smallest nanostructures and thus transmit and process information. The physical basis for this is the so-called spin of electrons in the magnetic material, which can be simplified as a rotation of the electron around its own axis. However, spin waves in microelectronics have so far only been of limited use, due to the so-called damping, which acts on the spin waves and weakens them.

Physicists at the University of Münster (Germany) have now developed a new approach that eliminates unwanted damping and makes it easier to use spin waves. "Our results show a new way for the application of efficient spin-driven components," says Dr. Vladislav Demidov, the head of the study (Institute for Applied Physics, Research Group Demokritov). The new approach may be relevant for future developments in microelectronics, but also for further research into quantum technologies and novel computer processes. The study was published in the journal "Nature Communications".

Background and method:

Magnonics is the name of the research field in which scientists study electron spins and their waves in magnetic materials. The term is derived from the particles of magnetism, which are called magnons corresponding to spin waves.

The best way to electronically compensate the disturbing damping of spin waves is the so-called spin Hall effect, which was discovered a few years ago. The electrons in a spin current are deflected sideways depending on the orientation of their spin, which makes it possible to efficiently generate and control spin waves in magnetic nano-devices. However, so-called nonlinear effects in the oscillations lead to the spin Hall effect not working properly in practical applications - one reason why scientists have not yet been able to realize damping-free spin waves.

In their experiment, the scientists placed magnetic disks made of permalloy or cobalt and nickel, just a few nanometers thick, on a thin layer of platinum. So-called magnetic anisotropies acted on the interfaces of the different materials, which means that the magnetization took place in a given direction. By balancing the anisotropies of the different layers, the researchers were able to efficiently suppress the unfavorable nonlinear damping and thus achieve coherent spin waves - i.e. waves whose frequency and waveform are the same and which therefore have a fixed phase difference. This enabled the scientists to achieve complete damping compensation in the magnet system, allowing the waves to propagate spatially.

The scientists expect that their new approach will have a significant impact on future developments in magnonics and spintronics. "Our findings open a route for the implementation of spin-Hall oscillators capable of generating microwave signals with technologically relevant power levels and coherence," stresses Boris Divinskiy, a PhD student at the Institute for Nonlinear Magnetic Dynamics at Münster University and first author of the study.