ReportWire

Tag: All Journal News

  • How does social media materialism induce stress and unhappiness?

    How does social media materialism induce stress and unhappiness?

    Six questionnaires answered by over 1,200 people

    Newswise — The researchers headed by Dr. Phillip Ozimek from the Faculty of Psychology at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, recruited 1,230 people for their online survey. In order to participate, respondents had to use at least one social media channel at least once a week. On average, the participants stated that they spent just over two hours a day on social media.

    The research team used six different questionnaires to determine the extent to which the participants had a materialistic attitude and tended to compare themselves with others, whether they used social media more actively or passively, whether they were addicted to social media, how stressed and how satisfied they were with their lives. 

    Downward spiral set in motion

    “The data showed that a stronger materialistic approach goes hand in hand with a tendency to compare oneself with others,” points out Phillip Ozimek. This comparison is very easy to make on social media, primarily through passive use, i.e. by looking at the content posted by other users. Materialism and passive use were also linked to addictive use of social media. “By this we mean, for example, that users are constantly thinking about the respective channels and fear that they are missing out on something if they are not online,” explains Phillip Ozimek. This in turn leads to symptoms of poorer mental health, i.e. stress. The final link in the chain is reduced life satisfaction. “Social media is one of six stepping stones to unhappiness,” concludes Phillip Ozimek.

    Social media attracts and breeds materialists

    “Overall, the study provides further evidence that the use of social media is associated with risks, especially for people with a highly materialistic mindset,” says the psychologist. This is particularly worrying, because social media can trigger and increase materialistic values, for example through (influencer) marketing. At the same time, the platforms attract materialists anyway, as they are a perfect way to satisfy many materialistic needs.

    “It’s definitely a good idea to be aware of the amount of time you spend on social media and to reduce it,” recommends Phillip Ozimek. He advises against giving up Social Media completely. “If you did, you’re likely to overcompensate.” The research team also suggests recording materialism and social media use in patients undergoing treatment for mental health disorders. “While these factors are often irrelevant, they can be a starting point for additional interventions that patients can try out at home.”

    Ruhr-Universitat Bochum

    Source link

  • Study reveals high social mobility in China’s Tang dynasty.

    Study reveals high social mobility in China’s Tang dynasty.

    Newswise — In studying social mobility in today’s industrialized nations, researchers typically rely on data from the World Economic Forum or, in the United States, the General Social Survey. But examining the same phenomena from past centuries is a more daunting task because relevant statistics are harder to come by. 

    However, a social science research team has now discovered a way to examine professional advancement in medieval China (618-907 CE) by drawing from the tomb epitaphs during the Tang Dynasty. These epitaphs contain the ancestral lineages, names, and office titles (e.g., Minister of Personnel, Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, and Palace Deputy Imperial Censor) of the deceased’s father and grandfather as well as the deceased’s career history and educational credentials—ample data points for measuring social mobility across generations. 

    Notably, their analysis shows that education during this period was a catalyst for social mobility.

    “Epitaphs written in medieval China, including the Tang Dynasty, tend to be highly detailed descriptions of an individual’s life with stylized prose and poems, and they contain granular information about the ancestral origins, family background, and career history of each deceased individual,” says Fangqi Wen, an assistant professor of sociology at Ohio State University. 

    “This information, to some extent, mirrors what would have been included in a contemporary social mobility survey,” adds Erik H. Wang, an assistant professor in NYU’s Department of Politics.

    Wang studies historical political economy while Wen examines social mobility in contemporary societies. After recognizing the high level of data quality embedded in these epitaphs, they realized that the artifacts were a vessel that merged their scholarly interests. Later they recruited the NYU professor of sociology Michael Hout, Wen’s dissertation advisor and a leading scholar on social stratification and mobility, to join the project.

    Their findings, which appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), show that the patterns of relationships of social origins, education, and adult achievement somewhat resemble the patterns in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. In drawing from 3,640 epitaphs of males as well as other data from reliable historical sources, such as dynastic records and third-party compiled genealogies, the researchers’ analysis revealed a decline of Chinese medieval aristocracy and the rise of meritocracy 1300 years ago.

    The researchers discovered a specific reason for this development: whether or not the deceased passed the Keju, or the Imperial Exam, which was developed during this period for the purposes of selecting officials for civil service posts. They found that the Keju, which was administered until the early 20th century, served as a catalyst for social mobility—much as higher education has done in the U.S. since at least the 1960s.

    “Our statistical analysis shows that coming from a prominent ancient great house or ‘branch’

    mattered less for career success in the bureaucratic system after roughly 650 CE while passing the Keju came to matter more,” the authors write. “Furthermore, passing the competitive exam may have even equalized chances of subsequent success, as a father’s status was not a factor in the bureaucratic rank of men who passed the Keju.”

    “Education is central to our understanding of intergenerational mobility,” observes Hout. “Many think it was a 20th-century development. But, as we can see from centuries-old data, there are phenomena linking origin, education, and careers very much like contemporary patterns.”

    # # #

    New York University

    Source link

  • Supports help keep Aussie firefighters safe

    Supports help keep Aussie firefighters safe

    Newswise — House fires, road crashes and emergency rescues – they’re all part of the job for Aussie firefighters. And in such physically demanding roles, maintaining a high level of fitness and movement quality is essential.

    Now, new research from health and fitness experts at the University of South Australia shows that professional firefighters have reduced movement quality as they age, which could put them at greater risk of injury.

    Conducted by UniSA masters researcher, Alex Redshaw, in partnership with the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS), the findings indicate that firefighters over the age of 50 generally have lower movement quality than their younger counterparts, and would benefit from additional functional strength training to maintain a fit and healthy workforce.

    Good movement quality underpins all essential movements required to safely perform critical components of physical function, including balance, stability, and muscular strength. It is developed through functional strength training using exercises that replicate body movements and patterns seen in daily activities (such as lunging, squatting, bracing, pressing).

    This is the first study on the effect of age on movement quality in Australian firefighters, and largest firefighter cohort in the world.

    Statistics shows that firefighters have an injury rate more than three times that of the non-tactical workforce. It is well-established that movement quality deteriorates with age in the general population, but there is conflicting evidence in older tactical populations.

    With an ageing population and more than 40% of South Australian firefighters aged over 50, the MFS was keen to understand how they could best support their members to maintain a safe and healthy career for as long as possible.

    Assessing movement quality, physical activity, injury history and body mass index (BMI) among 324 South Australian MFS firefighters, researchers found that firefighters older than 50 were more likely to have poor movement quality.

    It also found that firefighters with a high BMI, who participate in less than 150 minutes of physical exercise per week, and have had a musculoskeletal injury in the past 12 months, have lower movement quality, and may be at an increased risk of injury.

    UniSA researcher, Dr Hunter Bennett, says exercise interventions could be offered as part of a supportive workplace health and safety program.

    “Firefighters are routinely exposed to unique physiological and physical hazards, including extreme temperatures, heavy personal protective gear and unstable workspaces, all of which contribute to an increased risk of injury,” Dr Bennett says.

    “Good movement quality supports well-coordinated performance within these environments, but ageing can deteriorate these functions, which may put older firefighters at risk.

    “The MFS deploys a range of supports to maintain a fit and healthy workforce but is always on the lookout for additional improvements to benefit their members.

    “In this study we found that older firefighters had poorer movement quality than their younger counterparts, and that this increased with age. Additionally, firefighters who did more exercise (more than five hours a week) had better movement quality.

    “Knowing this, the MFS can support their members by offering specific movement quality programs to better maintain their physical capabilities as they age.”

    Notes to editors:

    The University of South Australia would like to thank the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service for supporting this UniSA postgraduate research project.

    The research paper can be accessed here: Redshaw, Alex & Carrick-Ranson, Graeme & Bennett, Hunter & Norton, Kevin & Walker, Anthony. (2023). Effect of Aging on Movement Quality in Australian Urban Firefighters. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 37. e601-e608. 10.1519/JSC.0000000000004528

     

    …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

     

    University of South Australia

    Source link

  • Amnesia Caused by Head Injury Reversed in Early Mouse Study

    Amnesia Caused by Head Injury Reversed in Early Mouse Study

    Newswise — WASHINGTON – A mouse study designed to shed light on memory loss in people who experience repeated head impacts, such as athletes, suggests the condition could potentially be reversed. The research in mice finds that amnesia and poor memory following head injury is due to inadequate reactivation of neurons involved in forming memories.

    The study, conducted by researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center in collaboration with Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, is reported January 16, 2024, in the Journal of Neuroscience.

    Importantly for diagnostic and treatment purposes, the researchers found that the memory loss attributed to head injury was not a permanent pathological event driven by a neurodegenerative disease.  Indeed, the researchers could reverse the amnesia to allow the mice to recall the lost memory, potentially allowing cognitive impairment caused by head impact to be clinically reversed.

    The Georgetown investigators had previously found that the brain adapts to repeated head impacts by changing the way the synapses in the brain operate. This can cause trouble in forming new memories and remembering existing memories. In their new study, investigators were able to trigger mice to remember memories that had been forgotten due to head impacts.

    “Our research gives us hope that we can design treatments to return the head-impact brain to its normal condition and recover cognitive function in humans that have poor memory caused by repeated head impacts,” says the study’s senior investigator, Mark Burns, PhD, a professor and Vice-Chair in Georgetown’s Department of Neuroscience and director of the Laboratory for Brain Injury and Dementia.

    In the new study, the scientists gave two groups of mice a new memory by training them in a test they had never seen before. One group was exposed to a high frequency of mild head impacts for one week (similar to contact sport exposure in people) and one group were controls that didn’t receive the impacts. The impacted mice were unable to recall the new memory a week later.

    “Most research in this area has been in human brains with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which is a degenerative brain disease found in people with a history of repetitive head impact,” said Burns. “By contrast, our goal was to understand how the brain changes in response to the low-level head impacts that many young football players regularly experience.”

    Researchers have found that, on average, college football players receive 21 head impacts per week with defensive ends receiving 41 head impacts per week. The number of head impacts to mice in this study were designed to mimic a week of exposure for a college football player, and each single head impact by itself was extraordinarily mild.

    Using genetically modified mice allowed the researchers to see the neurons involved in learning new memories, and they found that these memory neurons (the “memory engram”) were equally present in both the control mice and the experimental mice.

    To understand the physiology underlying these memory changes, the study’s first author, Daniel P. Chapman, Ph.D., said, “We are good at associating memories with places, and that’s because being in a place, or seeing a photo of a place, causes a reactivation of our memory engrams. This is why we examined the engram neurons to look for the specific signature of an activated neuron. When the mice see the room where they first learned the memory, the control mice are able to activate their memory engram, but the head impact mice were not. This is what was causing the amnesia.”

    The researchers were able to reverse the amnesia to allow the mice to remember the lost memory using lasers to activate the engram cells. “We used an invasive technique to reverse memory loss in our mice, and unfortunately this is not translatable to humans,” Burns adds. “We are currently studying a number of non-invasive techniques to try to communicate to the brain that it is no longer in danger, and to open a window of plasticity that can reset the brain to its former state.”

    ###

    In addition to Burns and Chapman the authors include Stefano Vicini at Georgetown University and Sarah D. Power and Tomás J. Ryan at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

    This work was supported by the Mouse Behavior Core in the Georgetown University Neuroscience Department and by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) / National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) grants R01NS107370 & R01NS121316. NINDS also supported F30 NS122281 and the Neural Injury and Plasticity Training Grant housed in the Center for Neural Injury and Recovery at Georgetown University (T32NS041218). Seed funding is from the CTE Research Fund at Georgetown.

    The authors report having no personal financial interests related to the study.

    Georgetown University Medical Center

    Source link

  • Count of neurosurgeon density reflects global unmet needs

    Count of neurosurgeon density reflects global unmet needs

    Newswise — Rolling Meadows, IL (January 16, 2024) How many neurosurgeons are needed worldwide? Recent reports have suggested that a neurosurgeon ratio of approximately 1 neurosurgeon per 65,000 individuals may not be adequate. Investigators from Harvard Medical School attempted to systematically provide the most accurate count of neurosurgeon density around the world, as well the number in each country. Using data collected from 99.5% of all countries and 96.2% of all additional territories, states, and disputed regions, the authors report that there are approximately 72,967 neurosurgeons globally, representing a pooled density of 0.93 neurosurgeons per 100,000 individuals, and a median national density of 0.44 neurosurgeons per 100,000 individuals. The study detailing these findings was published today in the Journal of Neurosurgery (https://thejns.org/doi/10.3171/2023.9.JNS231615). 

    The authors used contacts with national and regional neurosurgery societies, their own personal contacts, bibliometric and Google searches, and World Bank and United Nations data to obtain perhaps the most accurate count of global neurosurgeon density to date. There were wide disparities in the neurosurgery workforce and access to resources in different WHO regions and World Bank income categories. The African region, with 0.11 neurosurgeons per 100,000 individuals, and the Southeast Asia region, with 0.34 per 100,000 individuals, had the lowest neurosurgeon density, while the Western Pacific region (WPR) had the highest density, with 1.58 per 100,000 individuals. The authors found that there were 29 countries, 14 territories, and 1 independent state with no neurosurgeons at all, representing almost 36 million individualswithout access to a neurosurgeon. Among these 29 countries, 21 were low- and middle-income countries (LMICs; 72.4%), and most were located in the WPR (n = 10, 34.5%) or African region (n = 9, 31.0%). 

    The greatest growth in the number of neurosurgeons from 2016 to 2022 was in the Southeast Asia region (33.0% per year), while the slowest growth was in the African region (2.0% per year); 15 countries in the African region had a decrease in their neurosurgery densities, and 7 of these 15 countries were in West Africa. Some of the strongest predictors of annual relative growth in neurosurgery density included the presence of a national neurosurgery society, development aid, and national gross domestic product. 

    “We were excited to find that the neurosurgery workforce is growing worldwide, but the growth in LMICs has been disproportionately slow,” said Dr. Saksham Gupta, the lead author of the study. “The number of neurosurgeons in many LMICs remains insufficient to manage their countries’ needs, and neurosurgeons in LMICs have fewer resources to provide subspecialized care. These imbalances will negatively affect population health in LMICs and could contribute to burnout amongst already overworked LMIC neurosurgeons.” 

    In a related companion article (https://thejns.org/doi/10.3171/2023.9.JNS231616), the authors also attempted to determine the global density of neurosurgeon trainees. They estimated there were 1261 training programs with 10,546 neurosurgery trainees worldwide. The Southeast Asia (0.04 per 100,000 people) and African (0.05 per 100,000 people) regions had the lowest pooled trainee density, and there were no training programs in 22.4% of high-income countries (HICs) and in 35.2% of LMICs. Surveys of African young neurosurgeons and trainees highlighted some of the educational limitations that most trainees face, which included low exposure to educational conferences, the inability to attend national and international research conferences, and low access to cadaver laboratories.

    Regarding solutions to correct these imbalances, Gupta stated, “Collaboration between LMICs and HICs as well as between LMICs themselves is key and will help new perspectives flourish and best practices spread. Furthermore, there have been several impressive educational efforts, including but certainly not limited to Dr. Rutka’s work with the Ukraine Pediatric Fellowship Program, Dr. Baticulon’s work in the Philippines, the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS)—sponsored training center in Rabat, and numerous Foundation for International Education in Neurological Surgery courses and partnerships. Education is the bedrock of neurosurgery, and we should continue supporting existing educational tools (such as cadaver laboratories, weekend courses, year-long fellowships) while promoting emerging teaching modalities (webinars, high-fidelity dissection models, and open-access operative videos).”

    Articles:  Gupta S, Gal ZT, Athni TS, Calderon C, Callison WÉ, Dada OE, Lie W, Qian C, Reddy R, Rolle M, Baticulon RE, Chaurasia B, Dos Santos Rubio EJ, Esquenazi Y, Golby AJ, Pirzad AF, and Park KB, on behalf of the WFNS Global Neurosurgery Committee, EANS Global and Humanitarian Neurosurgery Committee, and CAANS Executive Leadership Committee. Mapping the global neurosurgery workforce. Part 1: Consultant neurosurgeon density. Journal of Neurosurgery. Published online January 16, 2024; DOI: 10.3171/2023.9.JNS231615. Mapping the global neurosurgery workforce. Part 2: Trainee density. Journal of Neurosurgery. Published online January 16, 2024; DOI: 10.3171/2023.9.JNS231616.

    Disclosures: The authors report no conflict of interest concerning the materials or methods used in these studies or the findings specified in these papers.

    Funding: Mr. Athni was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, NIH, under grant no. T32GM144273.

     ###

    ###

    The global leader for cutting-edge neurosurgery research for more than 75 years, the Journal of Neurosurgery (www.thejns.org) is the official journal of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) representing over 12,000 members worldwide (www.AANS.org).

    Journal of Neurosurgery

    Source link

  • Research sheds new light on Moon rock formation, solving major puzzle in lunar geology

    Research sheds new light on Moon rock formation, solving major puzzle in lunar geology

    Newswise — The study, published today in Nature Geoscience, reveals a key step in the genesis of these distinctive magmas.  A combination of high temperature laboratory experiments using molten rocks, together with sophisticated isotopic analyses of lunar samples, identify a critical reaction that controls their composition.

    This reaction took place in the deep lunar interior some three and a half billion years ago, involving exchange of the element iron (Fe) in the magma with the element magnesium (Mg) in the surrounding rocks, modifying the chemical and physical properties of the melt.  

    Co-lead author Tim Elliott, Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol, said: “The origin of volcanic lunar rocks is a fascinating tale involving an ‘avalanche’ of an unstable, planetary-scale crystal pile created by the cooling of a primordial magma ocean. 

    “Central to constraining this epic history is the presence of a magma type unique to the Moon, but explaining how such magmas could even have got to the surface, to be sampled by Space missions, has been a troublesome problem. It is great to have resolved this dilemma.”

    Surprisingly high concentrations of the element titanium (Ti) in parts of the lunar surface have been known since the NASA Apollo missions, back in the 1960s and 1970s, which successfully returned solidified, ancient lava samples from the Moon’s crust. More recent mapping by orbiting satellite shows these magmas, known as ‘high-Ti basalts’, to be widespread on the Moon.

    “Until now models have been unable to recreate magma compositions that match essential chemical and physical characteristics of the high-Ti basalts. It has proven particularly hard to explain their low density, which allowed them to be erupted some three and a half billion years ago,” added co-lead author Dr Martijn Klaver, Research Fellow at the University of Münster Institute of Mineralogy.

    The international team of scientists, led by the Universities of Bristol in the UK and Münster in Germany managed to mimic the high-Ti basalts in the process in the lab using high-temperature experiments.  Measurements of the high-Ti basalts also revealed a distinctive isotopic composition that provides a fingerprint of the reactions reproduced by the experiments.

    Both results clearly demonstrate how the melt-solid reaction is integral in understanding the formation of these unique magmas. 

    Paper

    ‘Titanium-rich basaltic melts on the Moon modulated by reactive flow processes’ by Martijn Klaver et al in Nature Geoscience

    University of Bristol

    Source link

  • Psychotherapy treats PTSD after multiple traumas.

    Psychotherapy treats PTSD after multiple traumas.

    Newswise — Psychotherapy is an effective treatment for adults with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following exposure to multiple traumatic events. This is the conclusion arrived at by an international team of researchers led by psychologists Dr Thole Hoppen and Prof Nexhmedin Morina from the Department for Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy at the University of Münster (Germany). The efficacy of psychotherapeutic interventions for treating PTSD in adults has been well-documented in various studies. However, until now, it had not been established whether the efficacy of psychotherapeutic interventions varies depending on whether the disorder is caused by one single event – for example, a traffic accident – or by multiple traumatic events such as during warfare or repeated incidents of sexual or physical violence. The meta-analysis, carried out based on data from around 10,600 patients, has now been published in the journal Lancet Psychiatry.

    In this study, the team of researchers – which also included Prof Richard Meiser-Stedman from the University of East Anglia (UK), Dr Ahlke Kip from the University of Münster, and Prof Marianne Skogbrott Birkeland from the Research Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies in Norway – evaluated 137 empirical articles published over the past four decades on the treatment of PTSD in adults. Nexhmedin Morina concludes: “The data show that several psychological interventions are highly effective in treating PTSD following multiple traumatic events – in fact, they are about as effective as when the PTSD follows a single trauma.” These results had, to date, only been reported for the treatment of children and adolescents with PTSD. Now, this study confirms that it also applies in the treatment of PTSD in adults. This is “very encouraging news” for both patients and therapists.

    Around four per cent of the global population suffers from PTSD as a result of traumatic events. The characteristic symptoms of PTSD include distressing intrusive traumatic memories, avoidance behaviour and difficulty with emotional regulation. The new findings have implications for the clinical practice and training of psychotherapists and mental health professionals more generally. “Our data helps remove treatment barriers for patients with a history of multiple traumatic events,” says Thole Hoppen. “In addition to patients’ fear of talking about their traumatic experiences, some psychotherapists hesitate to directly address traumatic experiences during treatment,” he adds. “However, trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy – a form of psychotherapy which helps process the traumatic memories – is not only very effective according to the accumulated data but more effective than non-trauma-focused interventions.” As a result, trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy is the first line of treatment recommended in national and international treatment guidelines. However, adds Hoppen, future research requires longer-term data to enable a more solid estimation of the long-term efficacy of the treatment.

     

    University of Munster

    Source link

  • Study: Reflective surfaces, tree irrigation cool hot city by 4.5°C.

    Study: Reflective surfaces, tree irrigation cool hot city by 4.5°C.

    Newswise — It’s possible to significantly reduce the temperatures of a major city in a hot desert climate while reducing energy costs, a new study by UNSW Sydney shows.

    The findings, published today in Nature Cities, detail a multi-faceted strategy to cool Saudi Arabia’s capital city by up to 4.5°C, combining highly reflective ‘super cool’ building materials developed by the High-Performance Architecture Lab with irrigated greenery and energy retrofitting measures. The study, which was conducted in collaboration with the Royal Commission of Riyadh, is the first to investigate the large-scale energy benefits of modern heat mitigation technologies when implemented in a city.

    “The project demonstrates the tremendous impact advanced heat mitigation technologies and techniques can have to reduce urban overheating, decrease cooling needs, and improve lives,” says UNSW Scientia Professor Mattheos (Mat) Santamouris, Anita Lawrence Chair in High-Performance Architecture and senior author of the study.

    Prof. Santamouris specialises in developing heat mitigation technologies and strategies to decrease urban temperatures in cities. Extreme urban heat affects more than 450 cities worldwide, increasing energy consumption needs and adversely impacting health, including heat-related illness and death. 

    Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, is one such city. Situated in the centre of a desert, it is one of the hottest cities in the world, with temperatures that can exceed 50°C during summer. Furthermore, climate change and rapid urbanisation are increasing the magnitude of overheating.

    “Limited greenery and large artificial surfaces made of conventional building materials like asphalt and concrete trap heat, meaning the city continues to heat up,” says Prof. Santamouris. “Additional heat from car pollution and industrial activities also increases the city’s temperature.” 

    Simulating city-scale heat mitigation scenarios

    For the study, the team led by UNSW researchers ran large-scale cooling climatic and energy simulations of the Al Masiaf precinct of Riyadh, including the energy performance of 3323 urban buildings, under eight different heat mitigation scenarios to evaluate optimal strategies for lowering the temperature of the city and reducing cooling needs.

    The modelling, which considered different combinations of super cool materials, vegetation types and energy retrofitting levels, found it’s possible to decrease the outdoor temperature in the city by nearly 4.5°C during summer. The strategy would also improve cooling energy conservation for the city by up to 16 per cent.

    The recommended heat mitigation (or cooling) scenario for Riyadh includes using super cool materials implemented in the roof of the buildings and more than doubling the number of irrigated trees to improve transpiration cooling. 

    On the contrary, a blind implementation of urban cooling techniques not based on detailed and advanced scientific optimisation, like the use of non-irrigated greenery, may result in a substantial increase in the city’s temperature. 

    “By implementing the right combination of advanced heat mitigation technologies and techniques, it is possible to decrease the ambient temperature at the precinct scale,” says Prof. Santamouris. “For a sweltering city the size of Riyadh, significantly reducing cooling needs is also tremendous for sustainability.”

    Prof. Santamouris says lowering the temperature of the city helps increase thermal comfort for people as well as reduce health issues from severe heat, decrease the concentration of pollutants and improve human productivity. While not a part of this study, previous research found implementing similar cooling strategies in other cities can help reduce heat-related deaths.

    Reducing energy demand at the urban scale 

    The research also simulated the energy impact of retrofitting measures for all 3323 buildings, alongside heat mitigation technologies implemented at the urban scale. Combining the optimal cooling technologies with energy retrofitting options – namely, improving the building envelope through better windows, insulation, solar and cool roofs – could decrease the cooling demand by up to 35 per cent.

    “This represents a substantial reduction to the energy needs for Riyadh that would help further reduce costs associated with cooling for the city while improving the quality of life for the local population,” says Prof. Santamouris.

    The researchers now hope to work with the Royal Commission of Riyadh to begin implementing the tailored heat mitigation plan in the city, which would be the largest of its kind in the world.

    “Once implemented at the city scale, these advanced heat mitigation technologies will deliver important health, sustainability and economic outcomes for the city for years to come,” says Prof. Santamouris. 

    The research team also included researchers from the University of Sydney, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the Royal Commission of Riyadh City, the University of Calcutta and the University of Athens. 

    University of New South Wales

    Source link

  • How can the brain compete with AI?

    How can the brain compete with AI?

    Can the shallow brain architecture compete with deep learning? (Video)

     

    Neural network learning techniques stem from the dynamics of the brain. However, these two scenarios, brain learning and deep learning, are intrinsically different. One of the most prominent differences is the number of layers each one possesses. Deep learning architectures typically consist of numerous layers that can be increased to hundreds, enabling efficient learning of complex classification tasks. Contrastingly, the brain consists of very few layers, yet despite its shallow architecture and noisy and slow dynamics, it can efficiently perform complex classification tasks.

    The key question driving new research is the possible mechanism underlying the brain’s efficient shallow learning — one that enables it to perform classification tasks with the same accuracy as deep learning. In an article just published in Physica A, researchers from Bar-Ilan University in Israel show how such shallow learning mechanisms can compete with deep learning. “Instead of a deep architecture, like a skyscraper, the brain consists of a wide shallow architecture, more like a very wide building with only very few floors,” said Prof. Ido Kanter, of Bar-Ilan’s Department of Physics and Gonda (Goldschmied) Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, who led the research.

    “The capability to correctly classify objects increases where the architecture becomes deeper, with more layers. In contrast, the brain’s shallow mechanism indicates that a wider network better classifies objects,” said Ronit Gross, an undergraduate student and one of the key contributors to this work. “Wider and higher architectures represent two complementary mechanisms,” she added.  Nevertheless, the realization of very wide shallow architectures, imitating the brain’s dynamics, requires a shift in the properties of advanced GPU technology, which is capable of accelerating deep architecture, but fails in the implementation of wide shallow ones.

    Bar-Ilan University

    Source link

  • Discovery: Nine snail species in Papua New Guinea, a biodiversity hotspot at risk.

    Discovery: Nine snail species in Papua New Guinea, a biodiversity hotspot at risk.

    Newswise — Nine new species of carnivorous land snails have been found in the remote forests of Papua New Guinea, a biodiversity hot spot. A new study describes the species, which are so small that all nine could fit together on a U.S. nickel. They present a rare opportunity to study a group that in many other places is disappearing fast. Worldwide, mollusks account for more than 50% of all recorded extinctions since the year 1500, and many of these were land snails from Pacific islands.

    The island of New Guinea accounts for less than 1% of Earth’s land area, but it contains roughly 5% of the planet’s biodiversity and the largest intact rainforests in Australasia. Wildlife thrives within this large swath of undeveloped land, but Papua New Guinea’s old-growth forests are also highly desirable to loggers and are likely to become a conservation battleground in the future.

    “These new species of snails were found in areas that still have native vegetation and still appear to be doing well, but they could easily become endangered if things change,” said John Slapcinsky, lead author of the paper and manager of the Florida Museum’s invertebrate zoology collection.

    To reach Papua New Guinea’s isolated forests, researchers had to travel on foot over steep mountains, sometimes using fallen trees to cross crevices that were more than 100 feet deep. There are few roads in the country, which historically posed a challenge to scientists interested in researching the region but has also shielded native plants and animals from human disturbance and habitat destruction.

    Slapcinsky took nine trips to Papua New Guinea between 2002 and 2012, each time staying for at least a month to comb through the soil and fallen leaves. He ultimately collected more than 19,000 snails from over 200 sites.

    Only 31% of the snail species he surveyed had been previously documented, a sign of Papua New Guinea’s high biodiversity and low levels of sampling. But the snails are also exceptionally hard to find because of their small size, pickiness about their habitats and limited distribution. Nearly all of them are restricted to a single island or mountain.

    The newly named snails have tightly coiled, Frisbee-shaped shells in various shades of brown and tan, some with attractive gold or brown flamelike bands.  One of the new species, Torresiropa paterivolans, was named for its resemblance to flying saucers (in Latin, “patera” means “saucer,” and “volans” means “flying”).

    All nine species have dagger-shaped teeth on their radula, which is characteristic of predatory snails. Just what they’re eating, Slapcinsky said, is a mystery, since the snails did not eat anything under observation. Still, the shape of the teeth, combined with the fact that other species in the same family — Rhytididae — are predators, suggests that these newly discovered snails do eat meat.

    There is not yet enough data to know the conservation status of the new species, but it is a promising sign that their habitat has not yet been dramatically altered by human activity.

    Slapcinsky contrasted this with the Hawaiian Islands, where native snails are at imminent risk of extinction. He works with a team at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu that collaborates with the state and federal government on captive breeding programs for native snail colonies, many of which harbor the last members of their species. They also provide native snails for fenced-in areas, known as exclosures, where predators have been removed and the native forest has been replanted. These are expensive programs that Papua New Guinea still has the chance to avoid, Slapcinsky said, by slowing deforestation and preventing the introduction of non-native predators before it becomes a more serious problem.

    Snails are highly vulnerable to habitat disturbances because they cannot easily travel long distances and are usually adapted only to the environment in their immediate vicinity. “When these habitats are threatened, snails are often out of luck, since they can’t go anywhere,” Slapcinsky said.

    Many past discoveries of new snail species, especially on Pacific islands, have come after it was too late to save them. Scientists did not know that many snails lived on Easter Island, which was completely deforested centuries ago, until examining fossil deposits. But species on the island of New Guinea can still be saved if the forest is saved. The newly named snails provide a rare glimpse at an ecosystem that remains largely intact, and there are surely many similar discoveries yet to be made.

    “We don’t know everything that’s out there,” Slapcinsky said. “Most people may not realize how poorly known most of the invertebrates are, even though 95 to 99% of all animals are invertebrates. You can go to a place, look around for a few months and find all sorts of things that haven’t been described before.”

    Florida Museum of Natural History

    Source link

  • New Insights into OCD: Understanding the Role of Insight in Treatment and Neuroimaging

    New Insights into OCD: Understanding the Role of Insight in Treatment and Neuroimaging

    Newswise — Marking a substantial advancement in understanding OCD, researchers from Zhejiang University School of Medicine have revealed key connections between clinical characteristics, neuroimaging and treatment, heralding new opportunities for improved diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. The study was published in Psychoradiology on 08 November, 2023.

    The study involved a comprehensive review of the concept of insight in OCD, exploring its clinical characteristics, corresponding changes in neuroimaging, and how insight relates to treatment effectiveness. Insight in OCD refers to the patient’s awareness of their thoughts and behaviors as symptoms of a disorder. Notably, about 13–36% of patients show poor insight, linked to more severe symptoms and poorer treatment outcomes.

    Neuroimaging studies have played a pivotal role in understanding the neurological basis of insight. Structural and functional abnormalities have been observed in critical brain areas, including the frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes. Specifically, reduced cortical thickness in the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex, left anterior cingulate cortex, and right lateral parietal cortex has been associated with poor insight. These findings suggest that insight-related changes might reflect a reduction in neurons within cortical columns.

    Although treatment like CBT and pharmacotherapy have shown some effectiveness in enhancing insight, the response to these treatments varies, emphasizing the need for personalized treatment strategies. Neuroleptics and atypical antipsychotics, often prescribed to patients with limited insight, have yet to show consistent effectiveness.

    The study’s leading researcher highlighted the importance of this study: “Our research not only advances our understanding of the neural underpinnings of OCD but also opens up new avenues for targeted treatments. By identifying specific neural networks associated with OCD severity, we can develop more personalized and effective interventions.”

    The implications of this research are profound. By enhancing our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying OCD, this study paves the way for more precise and personalized treatment approaches. It also underscores the potential of Connectome-based Predictive Modeling and other data-driven multimodal fusion techniques in psychiatric research, promising to transform diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for OCD and other complex psychiatric disorders.

    ###

    References

    DOI

    10.1093/psyrad/kkad025

    Original Source URL

    https://doi.org/10.1093/psyrad/kkad025

    Funding information

    The National Key R&D Program of China (2021YFF0702200); The National Natural Science Foundation of China (82101323); The Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant (LGF19H090015); The Key R&D Program of Zhejiang Province (2021C03001); The Medical Health Science and Technology Project of Zhejiang Provincial Health Commission (2022KY993); The Key Project for Hangzhou Medical Disciplines, and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2019XZZX003-20).

    About Psychoradiology

    Psychoradiology is an open-access journal co-published by Oxford University Press and West China Hospital. It has been indexed by Scopus, DOAJ and the APC is waived during its early stage. We welcome interdisciplinary submissions in the fields of radiology, psychology, psychiatry, neurology and neuroscience, as well as medical imaging, interventional medicine, artificial intelligence, and computer science, etc. A fast-track production mode will be adopted to ensure the manuscript is published as soon as possible.

    Chinese Academy of Sciences

    Source link

  • Some mosquitoes like it hot

    Some mosquitoes like it hot

    Newswise — Certain populations of mosquitoes are more heat tolerant and better equipped to survive heat waves than others, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

    This is bad news in a world where vector-borne diseases are an increasingly global health concern. Most models that scientists use to estimate vector-borne disease risk currently assume that mosquito heat tolerances do not vary. As a result, these models may underestimate mosquitoes’ ability to spread diseases in a warming world.

    Researchers led by Katie M. Westby, a senior scientist at Tyson Research Center, Washington University’s environmental field station, conducted a new study that measured the critical thermal maximum (CTmax), an organism’s upper thermal tolerance limit, of eight populations of the globally invasive tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus. The tiger mosquito is a known vector for many viruses including West Nile, chikungunya and dengue.

    “We found significant differences across populations for both adults and larvae, and these differences were more pronounced for adults,” Westby said. The new study is published Jan. 8 in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

    Westby’s team sampled mosquitoes from eight different populations spanning four climate zones across the eastern United States, including mosquitoes from locations in New Orleans; St. Augustine, Fla.; Huntsville, Ala.; Stillwater, Okla.; St. Louis; Urbana, Ill.; College Park, Md.; and Allegheny County, Pa.

    The scientists collected eggs in the wild and raised larvae from the different geographic locations to adult stages in the lab, tending the mosquito populations separately as they continued to breed and grow. The scientists then used adults and larvae from subsequent generations of these captive-raised mosquitoes in trials to determine CTmax values, ramping up air and water temperatures at a rate of 1 degree Celsius per minute using established research protocols.

    The team then tested the relationship between climatic variables measured near each population source and the CTmax of adults and larvae. The scientists found significant differences among the mosquito populations.

    The differences did not appear to follow a simple latitudinal or temperature-dependent pattern, but there were some important trends. Mosquito populations from locations with higher precipitation had higher CTmax values. Overall, the results reveal that mean and maximum seasonal temperatures, relative humidity and annual precipitation may all be important climatic factors in determining CTmax.

    “Larvae had significantly higher thermal limits than adults, and this likely results from different selection pressures for terrestrial adults and aquatic larvae,” said Benjamin Orlinick, first author of the paper and a former undergraduate research fellow at Tyson Research Center. “It appears that adult Ae. albopictus are experiencing temperatures closer to their CTmax than larvae, possibly explaining why there are more differences among adult populations.”

    “The overall trend is for increased heat tolerance with increasing precipitation,” Westby said. “It could be that wetter climates allow mosquitoes to endure hotter temperatures due to decreases in desiccation, as humidity and temperature are known to interact and influence mosquito survival.”

    Little is known about how different vector populations, like those of this kind of mosquito, are adapted to their local climate, nor the potential for vectors to adapt to a rapidly changing climate. This study is one of the few to consider the upper limits of survivability in high temperatures — akin to heat waves — as opposed to the limits imposed by cold winters.

    “Standing genetic variation in heat tolerance is necessary for organisms to adapt to higher temperatures,” Westby said. “That’s why it was important for us to experimentally determine if this mosquito exhibits variation before we can begin to test how, or if, it will adapt to a warmer world.”

    Future research in the lab aims to determine the upper limits that mosquitoes will seek out hosts for blood meals in the field, where they spend the hottest parts of the day when temperatures get above those thresholds, and if they are already adapting to higher temperatures. “Determining this is key to understanding how climate change will impact disease transmission in the real world,” Westby said. “Mosquitoes in the wild experience fluctuating daily temperatures and humidity that we cannot fully replicate in the lab.”

    Washington University in St. Louis

    Source link

  • About 22 high school age adolescents died each week from overdoses in 2022, driven by fentanyl-laced prescription pills

    About 22 high school age adolescents died each week from overdoses in 2022, driven by fentanyl-laced prescription pills

    BYLINE: Enrique Rivero

    EMBARGOED FOR USE UNTIL:

    7:30 A.M. (ET) ON JANUARY 6, 2024

     

    About 22 high school age adolescents died each week from overdoses in 2022, driven by fentanyl-laced prescription pills

    Newswise — An average of 22 adolescents 14 to 18 years of age died in the U.S. each week in 2022 from drug overdoses, raising the death rate for this group to 5.2 per 100,000– driven by fentanyl in counterfeit pills, new research finds.

    Adolescent overdoses had more than doubled among this group between 2019 and 2020, and have since intensified to such an extent that the death count equals a high school classroom each week, and is now the third largest cause of pediatric deaths behind firearm-related injuries and motor vehicle collisions. 

    The increase is, however, not due to more illicit drug use – which has in fact fallen over the years; for example, excluding cannabis, the rate of any illicit drug use among just 12th graders had fallen from about 21% to 8% in the 20 years since 2002. Instead, the increase is the result of drugs becoming deadlier due to fentanyl, which is increasingly found in counterfeit oxycodone, benzodiazepines and other prescription pills that fall into the hands of adolescents.

    But educators, physicians, and mental health practitioners can be instrumental in helping to stem this tide through pointed questions and guidance about drug use and the dangers that counterfeit pills present, the researchers write in a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine. In addition, policymakers can focus on “hotspot” counties, most in western states, with particularly high overdose deaths.

    “Teenagers are likely to be unaware of just how high-risk experimenting with pills has become, given the recent rise in counterfeit tablets” said study co-author Joseph Friedman, a researcher at UCLA. “It’s often impossible to tell the difference with the naked eye between a real prescription medication obtained from a doctor and a counterfeit version with a potentially deadly dose of fentanyl. It’s urgent that teenagers be given accurate information about the real risks, and strategies to keep themselves and their friends safe.” 

    The researchers found that adolescent overdoses were occurring at double the national average in Arizona, Colorado and Washington State between 2020 and 2022. They identified 19 hotspot counties – that is, those with at least 20 overdose deaths and death rates higher than the national average, with Maricopa County in Arizona and Los Angeles County having the most fatal overdoses at 117 and 111, respectively, during this period. 

    The other 17 counties are Orange County, California (61 deaths), Cook County, Illinois (56), San Bernardino County, California (54), King County, Washington (52), Riverside County, California (41), San Diego County, California (36), Tarrant County, Texas (35), Clark County, Nevada (31), Kern County, California (30), Pima County, Arizona (29), Adams County, Colorado (25), Denver County, Colorado (24), Jackson County, Missouri (24), Santa Clara County, California (24), Bernalillo County, New Mexico (23), Davidson County, Tennessee (21), and Marion County, Indiana (21). 

    In addition, American Indian and Alaska Native adolescents had 1.82 times the overdose rates of whites between 2020 and 2022. And adolescents are overall likelier to use the pill form of the drug rather than powder, which was previously the main fentanyl source. For instance, while 0.3% of high school seniors in 2022 reported using heroin, which comes in powder form, 5% reported nonmedical use of prescription pills the same year.

    The researchers provide the following recommendations to combat these trends:

    • Pediatricians, other primary care physicians, and mental health practitioners should ask their adolescent patients if they or their peers were approached either in person or via social media about buying pills, or if they have used them without prescriptions
    • Educators, along with parents, can discuss with adolescents the dangers associated with counterfeit pills; these efforts should be especially prioritized in hotspot locations
    • Clinicians, educators and parents can highlight the Safety First curriculum that emphasizes abstinence from drugs and provides information about risk reduction for those who do experiment with drugs, such as where to find and how to use the overdose-reversal agent naloxone
    • Finally, naloxone should be available in schools, which should also adopt “no-questions-asked” pill-disposal programs as well as provide anonymous mechanisms such messaging services that students can use to ask about counterfeit pills and substance use without risk of punishment or embarrassment.

    “Fentanyl has rapidly become a leading cause of death in American teens,” said Dr. Scott Hadland, chief of adolescent medicine at Mass General for Children and senior author on the paper. “Policymakers, clinicians, families and communities need to partner together to address this worsening public health threat.”

    University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Health Sciences

    Source link

  • Ultrasensitive molecular sensing with synthesize complex-frequencey waves

    Ultrasensitive molecular sensing with synthesize complex-frequencey waves

    Newswise — Sensors are essential tools for detecting and analyzing trace molecules in a variety of fields, including environmental monitoring, food safety, and public health. However, developing sensors with high enough sensitivity to detect these tiny amounts of molecules remains a challenge.

    One promising approach is surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA), which uses plasmonic nanostructures to amplify the infrared signals of molecules adsorbed on their surface. Graphene is a particularly promising material for SEIRA because of its high sensitivity and tunability. However, the interaction between graphene and molecules is weakened by intrinsic molecular damping.

    In a new paper published in eLight, researchers from multiple institutions demonstrated a new approach to improve the sensitivity of SEIRA. This approach employs synthesized complex-frequency waves (CFW) to amplify the molecular signals detected by graphene-based sensors by at least an order of magnitude. It also applies to molecular sensing in different phases.

    SEIRA was first demonstrated using Ag and Au thin films. Still, the advancement of nanofabrication and the development of new plasmonic materials have led to plasmonic nanostructures capable of much greater enhancement of biomolecule signals. Compared to metal-based SEIRA, strong field confinement supported by two-dimensional (2D) Dirac fermion electronic states enables graphene-based SEIRA with excellent performance in molecular characterization for gas and solid phase sensing. Graphene can also enhance molecular IR absorption in aqueous solution.

    Notably, the active tunability of graphene plasmons broadens their detection frequency range for different molecular vibrational modes by changing the doping level via gate voltage. These advantages make graphene-based SEIRA a unique platform for molecular monolayer detection.

    However, intrinsic molecular damping significantly reduces the interaction between the vibrational modes and plasmons. As a result, at very low concentrations, the spectra of plasmon-enhanced molecular signals become very weak and broad, ultimately overshadowed by noise.

    One way to compensate for molecular damping is to add optical gain materials. However, this requires a complex setup which may not be compatible with the detection system. In addition, gain materials usually increase instability and noise.

    Another possibility is to use complex-frequency waves (CFW); theoretical studies have proved that CFW with temporal attenuation can restore information loss due to material losses. However, producing CFW in real optical systems remains a challenging task.

    The researchers propose a new method for synthesizing CFW by combining multiple real-frequency waves. This method has been successfully applied to improve the spatial resolution of superlenses (see Guan et al, Science, Science 381, 766-771, 2023).

    The researchers demonstrate that synthesized CFWs can dramatically enhance the molecular vibrational fingerprints in graphene-based SEIRA. They successfully apply synthesized CFWs to improve the molecular signals in the mid-IR extinction spectrum for biomolecules under different conditions, including direct measurement of multiple vibrational modes of deoxynivalenol (DON) molecules and graphene-based SEIRA of proteins in both solid phase and aqueous solution.

    This new approach to SEIRA using synthesized CFWs is highly scalable to various SEIRA technologies and can generally increase the detection sensitivity of traditional SEIRA technologies. It could be used to develop ultrasensitive sensors for a wide range of applications, such as early disease diagnosis, personalized medicine, and rapid detection of toxic agents. This approach has the potential to revolutionize the field of molecular sensing, enabling the detection of trace molecules that are currently undetectable.

    ###

    References

    DOI

    10.1186/s43593-023-00058-y

    Original Source URL

    https://doi.org/10.1186/s43593-023-00058-y

    Funding information

    This work was supported by the New Cornerstone Science Foundation, the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong AoE/P-701/20, 17309021; National Key Research and Development Program of China grant 2021YFA1201500; National Natural Science Foundation of China (U2032206 and 51925203, 52022025; and 52102160).

    About eLight

    eLight will primarily publish the finest manuscripts, broadly covering all optics, photonics and electromagnetics sub-fields. In particular, we focus on emerging topics and cross-disciplinary research related to optics.

    Chinese Academy of Sciences

    Source link

  • Research volunteers combat Parkinson’s.

    Research volunteers combat Parkinson’s.

    Newswise — About three years before he retired, David Campbell noticed something weird happening as he typed. Whenever he tried to hit a letter, say “a,” he’d get “aaa,” like the keyboard was jamming or his finger was triple-tapping the key. That wasn’t the only thing that seemed off—his sense of smell was faltering. “Little things,” he says, “that I didn’t think of as being a big deal.”

    A couple of weeks after he retired in fall 2020, Campbell learned the little things weren’t so little—they were life-changing. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. The repeated “a” was caused by a slight tremor as nerve cells in his brain degenerated or died, interrupting the signals controlling his muscles. A tremor is many patients’ first Parkinson’s symptom, followed by a raft of other steadily worsening neurological issues, such as a quieter voice, slower movement, stiffer limbs, and tighter facial expressions. Almost all patients will suffer some loss of smell too.

    Although therapy and medications can bring some relief from the neurodegenerative disorder, there’s no cure. Somewhere between 500,000 and 1 million Americans have Parkinson’s, including actor Michael J. Fox, singer Neil Diamond, and civil rights activist Jesse Jackson.

    For Campbell, it was a pretty shabby retirement gift. As he tried to adjust to his new reality, the former Boston University laboratory engineer joined a support group and decided to volunteer for research studies that aimed to improve treatment—perhaps even plot the route to a cure. “I figured, I have the disease,” he says, “I might as well try to do something good with it.”

    That decision is already having an impact. With the help of volunteers like Campbell, researchers at Boston University’s Center for Neurorehabilitation, a hub for Parkinson’s research, education, and clinical care, have made two important advances that may help people with the disease walk more smoothly, even turn their shuffled steps into confident strides. In one study, they used wearable soft robotic apparel—a series of fabric wraps, cables, actuators, and sensors—to help patients walk farther and faster. A second study used a music-based technology to increase walking duration and distance—controlling a song’s beats per minute to keep the steps up.

    Based at BU Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences, the center has been at the forefront of research establishing the benefits of exercise and physical therapy in taming Parkinson’s disease’s impact and improving quality of life. And both of the newly tested therapies could find their way into patients’ everyday lives relatively quickly. The robotic device uses technology that’s already commercially available; the musical intervention uses store-bought headphones. But, says Terry Ellis, the Center for Neurorehabilitation’s director, without the volunteers who give up hours of their time to participate in research studies or help her team test ideas and tweak gadgets, none of it would be possible.

    That’s a story told across BU. Volunteers join research studies—as well as classroom discussions and clinical training programs—on a wide range of topics, participating in person or from home. Some even do it over decades, like those who’ve given their time to the long-running Framingham Heart Study and BU’s Black Women’s Health Study.

    “Most of our research is intervention studies, so there’s hypothetically some benefit for them,” says Ellis of her center’s work. Their fitness may improve, they may get to try out some symptom-relieving tools. “But without them, we couldn’t do the work. I’m always saying to [volunteers], the work wouldn’t exist without your participation and contribution.”

    Robotic Apparel Eliminates Freezing of Gait

    Being a research study guinea pig can be rewarding, and might even save or improve lives, but it’s hardly glamorous work. For most of the apparel study, the main volunteer (unnamed in the final paper to protect their privacy) spent his time walking back and forth—again, and again, and again. At first, it was to get a baseline of his walking ability, then to allow the researchers to monitor the robotic tech’s effectiveness at shifting his stride and fine-tune the technology.

    The patient, a 73-year-old male who’d been diagnosed with Parkinson’s 10 years earlier, was struggling with a common Parkinson’s problem known as freezing of gait. During a freezing episode, thought to be caused by a malfunction in the brain’s locomotor circuitry, a patient’s stride shortens, their walking speed tumbles, and their muscle coordination falls out of whack. Then they just stop—it reportedly feels like their feet are glued to the floor. Things had gotten so bad for the patient working with Ellis—more than 10 freezing episodes a day, resulting in multiple falls—he’d taken to getting around on a kick scooter.

    “It’s just devastating,” says Ellis (CAMED’05), a Sargent professor and chair of physical therapy. “There’s really no medicine or surgery that improves this. It interferes tremendously with people’s everyday life.”

    She and her colleagues had tried wearable robotic apparel with people recovering from a stroke—finding it helped some regain their pre-stroke walking speeds—and wondered if similar technology might work for Parkinson’s too. That exosuit, which is now commercially available for stroke rehabilitation from medical device company ReWalk Robotics, was derived from a model developed for the military by Harvard University’s Biodesign Lab to increase service members’ endurance.

    In most iterations, the robotic apparel looks like a highly engineered sports brace, using an algorithm to drive motors and cables that strategically apply forces to supplement muscles and joints. The version the researchers tailored for the Parkinson’s study featured two bands: one around the waist, the other around the thigh, each connected by a spooled cable. When activated, the spool turns, retracting the cable and pulling the thigh up. Ellis calls it a mechanical assist: “It provides a little bit of force—it’s perceptible, but at a very low level.” The algorithm helps time the assistance to the users’ steps and tailor the amount of force needed.

    As the study progressed, the researchers put their volunteer through his paces with a range of different tasks, including timed walking tests in the lab and outside in the community, adjusting the force provided by the suit—and its timing—and assessing the biomechanics of his walking.

    The results were striking: when the suit was on, the volunteer strolled easily down the corridor, arms and legs swinging with a natural confidence; when it was powered down, the change was almost instant—he staggered, stumbled, shuffled, and grabbed at the wall for balance.

    When switched on, the robotic apparel eliminated his freezing of gait—the first time any study has shown a potential way to overcome the debilitating symptom. The findings were published in Nature Medicine.

    “It’s pretty amazing,” says Ellis, who collaborated with researchers from BU and Harvard University. “We think we’re driving an increase in step length and that’s preventing the shortening of the steps that leads to freezing. In future, we envision you could wear this like underclothes.” Her coauthors include Conor Walsh, a Harvard University professor of engineering and applied sciences; Franchino Porciuncula, a Sargent research scientist; and Jinsoo Kim, a Stanford University postdoctoral scholar and recent Harvard PhD student.

    The researchers even did an informal test outside the study, letting the volunteer take the apparel for a spin at home. “And he did pretty well,” says Ellis. “There were certain tight spots where it didn’t work as well as we would want, so we talked about playing with the algorithm to make it work better.”

    This was just a small study with one patient, so the next stage would be scaling the project up with more volunteers. But Ellis says because the base technology is already commercially available through ReWalk, there aren’t many barriers to getting the suit into clinics. She pictures a near future where a patient visits a physical therapist, their walking is assessed, and they get robotic apparel tailored for their needs. Even without the tech, the team’s findings on the biomechanics of freezing gait may help therapists better target treatments to combat it.

    Walking to the Beat Improves Quality of Life with Parkinson’s

    Another volunteer being helped to hit her stride is Ann Greehy. A former school guidance counselor, she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2015 and began volunteering at BU three years later. Her most recent contribution was as a volunteer on a project examining the use of music as a walking aid.

    In a new study published in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease, Ellis and Porciuncula found they could use a song’s beats per minute to help people increase their gait speed and stride length, and cut out variability in their walking patterns. Greehy was one of those who’d helped them assess the technology.

    During the study, researchers placed sensors in subjects’ shoes to monitor their gait and gave them an Android device loaded with a music software app. The proprietary system, which uses a technique known as rhythmic auditory stimulation, plays music with beats per minute tailored to a patients’ natural walking cadence, helping them gradually increase their pace session by session; all the participants were asked to plug in their headphones and walk for 30 minutes, five days a week.

    “It was amazing when the beats started—it was a whole new experience,” says Greehy. “You put your shoulders back and you’re up walking.”

    After four weeks of using the system, which was developed by neurorehab company MedRhythms, the 23 study participants had a similar experience to Greehy. The researchers found that, compared to baseline, they had higher rates of daily moderate intensity walking (up by an average of 21.44 minutes) and more steps (up by 3,384 steps). In the paper, they noted “quality of life, disease severity, walking endurance, and functional mobility were improved after four weeks.”

    “People with Parkinson’s can’t move automatically—they have to think about the movement,” says Ellis, who collaborated on the study with researchers from the University of New England, Johns Hopkins University, and MedRhythms. The part of the brain, the basal ganglia, that sends the signals that help people walk without deliberate thought is dysfunctional. “You can’t possibly keep that level of attention to the task of walking, so we were trying to figure out how to provide an external signal if the internal signal is not working.”

    The music provided that signal—in the same way your workout playlist gets your feet moving on the gym treadmill. “You’re not thinking, ‘Oh, I want to run to the beat of the music,’” says Ellis. “It just happens, and so it takes a lot less cognitive energy.”

    Making Sense of Life with Parkinson’s

    One of Greehy’s highlights of the music study was making Ellis’ students laugh by sharing her favorite track: rapper Flo Rida’s “Club Can’t Handle Me.” They were “on the floor laughing at this old lady who likes Flo Rida,” she says. Like Greehy, many of the volunteers also come into BU to work with students, sitting in on classes and panels, talking to them about living with Parkinson’s disease, answering their questions, and giving them a chance to practice their care skills. Some volunteers also attend the Center for Neurorehabilitation as a patient, receiving physical therapy services.

    “Our research and clinic are one and the same,” says Ellis. “That chasm that can exist between research and clinical practice doesn’t exist here. The questions we try to answer with research come from our interactions with patients in the clinic—it’s their challenges and problems that they bring to us that make us curious about how to solve them.” And when they find a solution, they take it straight into the clinic.

    Another of the music study volunteers and clinic patients, retired psychologist Ed Hattauer, appreciates that focus on making lives better—including his own. “As an old-time PhD researcher, I really relish in the importance of doing research, but research that’s very practically oriented toward helping people do things.” Hattauer says that when he comes to the center, there’s “really a sense of personal caring that gets communicated. And I think what I carry away is a sense of hope. It helps sustain my hope and my feeling of emotional connection.”

    Greehy says there are a whole bunch of factors that keep her coming back: “I’ve gotten so much out of this it’s not even funny.” She loves working with students, she gets great tips from the therapists about maintaining her hobbies, like gardening, and she feels good being part of the push for a solution to the disease. Most importantly, volunteering has helped her make sense of life after her diagnosis.

    “What are you going to do with this disease?” says Greehy. “Are you just going to sit back or are we going to jump in? I want us to do more to wipe this thing out. I think it’s time.”

    Like other volunteers, Greehy knows the disease probably won’t be cured in her lifetime, but it won’t stop her trying.

    “I don’t know if they’ll find a cure for me necessarily,” says Campbell, “but I’ve been around research and development my whole life and it feels good to contribute in whatever way possible. I could just sit at home and wallow in pity and do nothing, but it feels proactive to go out and make an effort to advance the science.”

     

    Republishers are kindly reminded to uphold journalistic integrity by providing proper crediting, including a direct link back to the original source URL here.

    Boston University

    Source link

  • Patients Less Likely to Experience Death at Academic and High-Volume Hospitals When Treated with Immunotherapy for Metastatic Cancers

    Patients Less Likely to Experience Death at Academic and High-Volume Hospitals When Treated with Immunotherapy for Metastatic Cancers

    Newswise — A new study led by Yale Cancer Center researchers at Yale School of Medicine revealed a significant increase in patients starting immunotherapy within one month of death. Using a national clinical database, the researchers focused on patients with metastatic melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and renal cell carcinoma (RCC). They were treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors from the point of FDA approval, through to 2019. The melanoma cohort began treatment in 2012 and the RCC and NSCLC cohorts in 2016.

    The findings were published in JAMA Oncology on January 4.

    “Immunotherapy has revolutionized the field of oncology over the last decade,” said Sajid Khan, MD, senior author of the study and section chief of Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary (HPB) and Mixed Tumors at Yale School of Medicine. “Because survival is substantially improved for many patients treated with these drugs, it’s application has increased across the United States. In our study, we focused on immunotherapy initiation at the end of a patient’s life with cancer metastasis.”

    Because the therapy is relatively new, the study aimed to “offer insights into national prescribing patterns and serve as a harbinger of shifts in the clinical approach to patients with advanced cancer.”

    The study included 20,415 stage IV melanoma patients, 197,331 stage IV NSCLC patients, and 24,625 stage IV RCC patients. Researchers considered each patient’s age, sex, race, and ethnicity as well as the location of metastases and the medical facility where treatment was given.

    “We were interested in gauging how frequently immunotherapy is initiated within the last 30 days of life,” said Khan, a member of Yale Cancer Center and the co-director of Team Science at Yale Center for Clinical Investigation. “Our study found that the initiation of immunotherapy in the last month of a patient’s life has significantly increased in the last 10 years, accounting for one in 14 immunotherapy treatments overall.”

    For patients with metastatic melanoma, the increase was from 0.8% to 4.3%, for NSCLC 0.9% to 3.2%, and for RCC 0.5% to 2.6%. In 2019, these end-of-life-initiated (EOL-I) treatments represented 7.3% of all immunotherapy treatments, indicating a growing application of EOL-I immunotherapy.

    Where patients were treated with immunotherapy mattered. “There were improved survival outcomes when the therapy was administered at academic and high-volume facilities,” said Khan. While patients treated at non-academic or low-volume hospitals had higher odds of receiving EOL-I immunotherapy, patients were less likely to experience death at academic and high-volume hospitals when given immunotherapy for metastatic cancers.

    “Another noteworthy finding was that the outcome for patients receiving immunotherapy towards the end of their life was different depending on the burden of metastasis. Patients with more than three sites of distant metastases are more likely to die within one month of immunotherapy initiation than those with only distant lymph node metastasis.”

    The researchers note that immunotherapy provides a strong overall survival benefit and can salvage patients with metastasis, even those in high-risk sub-groups. The study findings highlight the need for further investigation into the implications of EOL-I immunotherapy with the hope of refining treatment guidelines for the benefit of patients facing metastatic cancer.

    Daniel Kerekes from Yale School of Medicine and Yale Department of Surgery was the study’s first author. Alexander Frey, Elizabeth Prsic, Thuy Tran, James Clune, Mario Sznol, Harriet Kluger, Howard Forman, Robert Becher, and Kelly Olino were Yale co-authors.

    Yale Cancer Center/Smilow Cancer Hospital

    Source link

  • Molecular Diagnostics Research That Could Transform Healthcare Featured in the January Issue of ADLM’s The Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine

    Molecular Diagnostics Research That Could Transform Healthcare Featured in the January Issue of ADLM’s The Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine

    Newswise — WASHINGTON – Molecular diagnostics is a powerful branch of laboratory medicine that examines the fundamental genetic and biochemical components of life to provide invaluable insights into health and disease. This special issue of the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine’s (formerly AACC’s) The Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine highlights the latest research in this field that could advance care for conditions ranging from infectious diseases to inherited disorders. 

    View the full issue here: https://academic.oup.com/jalm/issue/9/1

    While laboratory medicine experts have used molecular diagnostic methods for years to diagnose and monitor disease, this field continues to evolve rapidly, and has become more relevant than ever in the face of modern healthcare challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic is the most striking recent example of the central role of molecular diagnostics in global health. PCR tests are a type of molecular diagnostic test and, as is well known, have been crucial to controlling the spread of SARS-CoV-2. And pandemic management isn’t the only area of infectious disease testing that molecular diagnostic technology is revolutionizing. Sequencing cell-free DNA in blood samples has the potential to improve infectious disease evaluation and treatment, and is explored in a study published in this special issue.

    Broadening access to personalized medicine is another goal of modern healthcare that wouldn’t be possible without molecular diagnostics. The ability of molecular diagnostics to help tailor treatment to each patient’s unique biological makeup is most evident in the field of pharmacogenomics. Lab experts use molecular diagnostic methods to identify genetic markers that affect drug metabolism and efficacy—information that providers then use in turn to prescribe medication that has the highest likelihood of benefiting patients. Technologies such as next-generation sequencing (NGS) have the potential to increase the availability of pharmacogenomic information, and a review in this special issue of The Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine discusses how clinical laboratories can implement NGS for this purpose.

    One other compelling use for molecular diagnostics that is showcased in this special issue is genomic population screening, which has the potential to shift the healthcare paradigm from reactive to proactive. In many countries, programs are already being piloted at population scale that detect genetic diseases prior to symptom onset, thereby enabling preventive treatment. A review article in this special issue examines important practical considerations that must be taken into account as such programs expand, such as their economic benefit and the development of policies to guide them.

    “In the grand tapestry of modern healthcare and precision medicine, molecular diagnostics stands as a vibrant thread, woven with the promise of better patient outcomes, cost savings, and a deeper understanding of the molecular underpinnings of health and disease,” wrote issue editors and molecular diagnostic experts Drs. Nikoletta Sidiropoulos, Eric Vail, Erin H. Graf, Ann M. Moyer, Jillian G. Buchan, and Valentina Nardi in the preamble to the special issue. “It is our hope that the content of this issue will conjure professional reflection and spark collegial discussion in the community to embrace current practices and address and overcome current and future challenges so that the field may continue to improve human health and well-being.”

     

    About the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM)

    Dedicated to achieving better health through laboratory medicine, ADLM (formerly AACC) brings together more than 70,000 clinical laboratory professionals, physicians, research scientists, and business leaders from around the world focused on clinical chemistry, molecular diagnostics, mass spectrometry, translational medicine, lab management, and other areas of progressing laboratory science. Since 1948, ADLM has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing programs that advance scientific collaboration, knowledge, expertise, and innovation. For more information, visit www.myadlm.org.

    The Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine (academic.oup.com/jalm) is published online by ADLM. This international, peer-reviewed publication showcases applied research on clinically relevant laboratory topics as well as commentary on the practice of clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine. 

    Association for Diagnostic and Laboratory Medicine (ADLM (formerly AACC))

    Source link

  • Local lens, global impact: Mini park tackles big climate worries

    Local lens, global impact: Mini park tackles big climate worries

    Newswise — Palm Springs Downtown Park is an inviting 1.5-acre urban oasis for residents and visitors to Palm Springs, a design-forward desert destination nestled along the base of the San Jacinto Mountains along the southwestern boundary of the Coachella Valley in California’s Sonoran Desert of the USA. The site lies in the ancestral homeland of the Agua Caliente band of the Cahuilla people who seasonally migrated between the shady palm groves and meltwater creeks of mountain canyons in summer and the hot springs and temperate climate of the valley floor in winter. The park is also located on the historic site of the Desert Inn, Palm Springs’ first wellness resort. Nellie Coffman, the Desert Inn’s founder, famously promoted the “space, stillness, solitude, and simplicity” of Palm Springs, and the park is imbued with her spirit. Drawing inspiration from local natural features such as the oases of endemic California fan palms (Washingtonia filifera) in Palm Canyon and the striated geology of nearby Tahquitz Canyon, the park design creates hospitable, comfortable spaces for the community in the extreme heat of the desert. The park features dense palm grove planting with ample shaded areas for seating, two picnicking and event lawns, rock outcrop-like amphitheater seating for community events, shade structures inspired by palm fronds, and a grotto-like interactive water feature for play and cooling. Locally sourced stone, native desert plantings, and creature comforts create a common ground rooted in a hyperlocal use of materials to create a sense of place for the diverse, growing community of Palm Springs and its visitors

    Frontiers

    Source link

  • Study Charts Possibilities for a Better Way to Diagnose Gestational Diabetes

    Study Charts Possibilities for a Better Way to Diagnose Gestational Diabetes

    BYLINE: Nakaysha Gonzalez

    Newswise — Pregnancy weight and biochemical markers measured in blood from women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) were related to increased risk of poor pregnancy outcomes, suggesting a new direction for precision diagnostics, according to researchers.

    The study led by Ellen C. Francis, an assistant professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at Rutgers School of Public Health, and published in Nature Communications Medicine, evaluated the diagnostic value of these markers before or at the time of screening for GDM, a type of diabetes that can develop during pregnancy.

    “Although we found that obesity is a risk factor for offspring born larger for their gestational age, evidence suggests that the metabolic alterations that accompany obesity increase the risk of adverse outcomes,” said Francis. GDM, characterized by elevated blood sugar (glucose) levels during pregnancy, is the most common metabolic condition among pregnant women and poses risks to both mother and child. While standard treatments are applied, clinical outcomes can differ among individuals.

    Francis said the research demonstrates the need for a more nuanced approach to diagnose GDM, which may help improve outcomes. It is the first systematic review of the literature to assess the potential of subtypes in GDM and to examine whether nonglycemic markers could refine risk stratification. Francis said some of the literature suggested insulin profiles and triglyceride levels may serve as promising non-glucose indicators of risk.

    “To really assess the clinical implications of precision diagnostics in GDM, we first need to understand if insulin resistance or higher triglycerides are causally linked to adverse outcomes, and whether we can safely target them in pregnancy,” Francis said.

    Overall, researchers found a critical gap in the existing literature in which most studies hadn’t focused on comparing clinical, biochemical or sociocultural differences among women who develop GDM.

    “In our full text screening of 775 studies, we found that only recently has there been a focus on clinical, biochemical, or sociocultural markers that could improve who is at greatest risk of poor outcomes, and on comparing clinical outcomes between different subtypes of GDM,” said Francis. “The data from these studies indicate that in the future, we may be able to refine how we diagnose GDM by using anthropometric or biochemical information in combination with current diagnostic approaches.”

    Future research should delve into mechanistic studies on precision biomarkers, large diverse population studies for replication, and multinational studies focusing on environmental and behavioral factors, Francis said. It should also explore potential insights on casual pathways of heterogeneity within GDM and its outcomes from genetic and multi-omics data using advanced analytical approaches.

    Study co-authors include researchers from collaborating institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, South Korea and Australia.

    Rutgers University-New Brunswick

    Source link

  • C2QA, a Year in Review

    C2QA, a Year in Review

    Newswise — The Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage (C2QA), led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, spans over 27 different partner and affiliate institutions ranging from research and academia to industry. C2QA’s primary focus is building the tools necessary to create scalable, distributed, and fault-tolerant quantum computer systems, and the center has been growing, building, and working hard every year to support that mission. 2023 has gone by quickly, with several memorable milestones to mark the way. Here are some highlights from the last year.

    Science and Technology

    Qubits, basic quantum systems that store information, are fussy things. The smallest fluctuations in their environment can cause them to break down. Heat, ambient radiation, magnetic fields, and even other surrounding qubits can cause the information stored in a qubit to leak into the environment and change its state, making it no longer viable. This is known as “decoherence,” and it’s one of the biggest challenges in making the quantum revolution a reality.

    The materials thrust has made significant progress in extending the lifetime of these finicky bits. Scientists from the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) and the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) at Brookhaven Lab and C2QA partner Princeton University investigated the fundamental reasons that tantalum qubits perform better by decoding this material’s chemical profile. The results of this work, which were recently published in the journal Advanced Science, will provide key knowledge for designing even better qubits in the future. CFN and NSLS-II are DOE Office of Science User Facilities at Brookhaven Lab.

    The Devoret Research Group at Yale University was also hard at work extending the lifetime and performance of qubits. Led by Michel Devoret, devices subthrust leader at C2QA, the team was able to double the life of a tantalum-based qubit through a process called error correction. Error correction is a special type of coding that will, theoretically, protect the information in a qubit. Researchers employed several methods that have built upon years of research to get to this groundbreaking result, which was published in Nature earlier this year.

    This year, Nathan Wiebe, leader of the Center’s software thrust, and his team worked on a quantum algorithm that simulated classical harmonic oscillators with significant advantage. While other simulations have achieved similar results, they have mostly investigated representations of systems that are already quantum mechanical in nature. This research demonstrated that, in the right conditions, a quantum computer could solve a classical problem in significantly less time.

    Community Outreach

    The quantum information science (QIS) community is growing as research accelerates, and C2QA is leaving no stone unturned to recruit outstanding talent and ensure that opportunities within the field are accessible to all communities and institutions. Some of this starts with reaching out to students as early as high school, introducing them to this budding field, and giving them a chance to connect with experts and learn more about it.

    This past summer, C2QA hosted QIS 101, a virtual quantum computing summer school. In its third year, QIS 101 built off its successes and learned from its challenges to optimize the course even more. The in-depth coursework, including 50 hands-on projects, was spread out over a six-week period this year. In its short three years, 12 alumni of the class obtained follow-on undergraduate or graduate internships at Brookhaven Lab, other DOE labs, or STEM-focused businesses; seven students were accepted into a master’s program in STEM fields; and two were accepted into Ph.D. programs in STEM fields. These accomplishments are a bright reflection of the talented pool of applicants that are accepted into QIS 101 and what they will bring to this growing field.

    The C2QA-led Quantum Information Science Virtual Career Fair continues to grow in both attendees and offerings. This year, the number of exhibitors more than doubled, reaching 42 booths that represented research, academia, and industry. The event drew in over 1,300 registrants, 39% more than the previous year, and 780 attendees—an encouraging 59% more than the previous year. About three-quarters of the attendees were students (23% undergrads and 44% graduate students) and postdocs (13%). There were 2,100 clicks on the job website, where jobseekers could apply instantly, and over 10,000 booths visited!

    The virtual Quantum Thursdays lecture series is still going strong. C2QA hosted 13 Quantum Thursdays on a variety of topics this year. While undergraduate students are the target audience for these beginner sessions, approximately 40% of attendees identified as undergraduate or graduate students. The series was expanded to include speakers and involvement from all five of the DOE Office of Science National Quantum Information Science Research Centers, setting the stage for a bigger picture of the quantum landscape in the coming year. Previous lectures can be viewed in C2QA’s video archive.

    Another important facet of growing the center is to ensure there is a place for everyone in quantum. The diverse talent brought in through programs that highlight otherwise underrepresented people and institutions benefits the entire QIS landscape.2023 saw the launch of the Faculty Outreach for Quantum-Interested UniversitieS (FOQUS) program. This collective program leveraged the resources and expertise of Brookhaven Lab, including the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the Office of Educational Programs, C2QA, the DOE Office of Science’s Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists, and the IBM-HBCU Quantum Center. This ambitious program encouraged university faculty to combine and expand their networks and leverage programs offered by DOE to engage students and teachers. By breaking down barriers and fostering networking, faculty can prepare and develop underrepresented students from all STEM disciplines to enter the world of QIS.

    Looking to the Future 

    “In 2023, we’ve seen so many promising developments across each thrust in the Center,” remarked C2QA director Andrew Houck. “We’re not just uncovering answers, we’re finding new questions to ask in the year ahead. I think we are at this cusp, and we are about to see—in the next five or 10 years—these machines start to do things that are useful and better than any other technology.”

    Teaming up with other NQISRCs in the future can help remove some of the limitations on rapidly growing programs. QIS 101, for example, received 424 applications when the program can only support up to 40 students due to budget limitations. Joining forces with the other centers could allow a larger number of participants to take advantage of these opportunities in the future.

    Brookhaven National Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit science.energy.gov.

    Follow @BrookhavenLab on social media. Find us on Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and Facebook.

     

    Brookhaven National Laboratory

    Source link