#Scientists'bend'elastic waves with new metamaterials that could have commercial applications"Methods of controlling
Guoliang Huang, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in the College of Engineering at MU.""Our team has developed a material that,
steel. The engineered structural material possesses the ability to control the increase of acoustical or elastic waves.
The material was made in a single steel sheet using lasers to engrave"chiral, "or geometric microstructure patterns,
"In its current state, the metal is a passive material, meaning we need to introduce other elements that will help us control the elastic waves we send to it,
"We're going to make this material much more active by integrating smart materials like microchips that are controllable.
"Going forward, Huang said there are numerous possibilities for the material to control elastic waves including super-resolution sensors, acoustic and medical hearing devices,
#Brain secrets unlocked by international imaging effort NUI Galway professor of psychology Professor Gary Donohoe led The irish contribution to the study
The consortium known as the ENIGMA (Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis) shared results from analyses of genetic data
The study looked at the size of sub-cortical brain regions that are involved in some basic functions such as memory movement learning and motivation.
Abnormalities in these brain regions are associated with neurological and mental health disorders. According to Professor Donohoe: For years scientists have been fascinated by the development of different brain structures and how this changes in brain-based disorders.
In this study we have used MRI scans to look at how the size of different brain regions is influenced by our genes
and learning and is implicated in Parkinson's disease. This finding opens up new avenues for research in this disease by giving new clues about the biological mechanisms involved.
The research was funded in part by Science Foundation Ireland and the Health Research Board in Ireland and involved collaboration between researchers at NUI Galway and Trinity college Dublin.
Knowledge about the genetic basis of these structures provides important insights into how the brain develops said Professor Donohoe.
and to understanding the basis of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders such as schizophrenia Alzheimer's disease and epilepsy.
Given the likelihood that thousands of variants are involved large scale international efforts such as in this study are an important step in unravelling this genetic and biological complexity so as to develop new and better treatments.
ENIGMA's scientists screen brain scans and genomes worldwide for factors that help or harm the brain said ENGIMA cofounder Professor Paul Thompson from University of Southern California.
This crowdsourcing and sheer wealth of data gives us the power to crack the brain's genetic code.
Unless you know what'normal'development looks like it's hard to know how disease manifests in these sub-cortical regions.
and genetic data to make this kind of study possible. By working together in large collaborative projects we can tackle these types of problems and further our understanding of the biology of the brain.
The study identified five genetic variants that influence the size of structures within the brain.
which is important for movement and reinforcement learning. This variant is located within the KTN1 gene that encodes the protein Kinectin a receptor important for cell function.
of which has previously been implicated in risk for schizophrenia. The article published in Nature today is'Common genetic variants influence human subcortical brain structures
#Major breakthrough in reading ancient scrolls A breakthrough not only in digital imaging techniques the first-of-its-kind software could also have profound impacts on history and literature.
The sheer volume of words available for discovery is probably larger than the entire works of Shakespeare said Seales.
they were carbonized in the Mount vesuvius volcanic eruption of A d. 79 and later discovered as charred clumps in the Villa of the Papyri in the ancient Italian city of Herculaneum beginning in 1752.
When attempting to open the artifacts would often shatter beyond Repair to reveal the works inside the remaining intact scrolls Seales
Without unrolling the scrolls Seales'software will run extremely high-resolution images from the tangled surfaces making sense of the jumbled letters into words and words into passages.
The software will combine novel methods for finding the scroll surfaces together with a user-guided interface for correcting mistakes
In other words it will pull out a page that displays writing from the data they currently have
Because of this Seales his team partners and physicists will be able to optimize the scanning process on site allowing them to see an entire page unwrapped without ever leaving the facility.
We have a ton of data from all of our preliminary work and from the 2009-2010 work.
We're using that data to build software so that we can pull out large sections and flatten them said Seales.
The software we're building will be the first to visualize data in that way and it's crucial to uncovering the works inside the Herculaneum scrolls.
Supported by a three-year $500000 National Science Foundation grant and by Google where Seales spent his sabbatical in 2012-2013 the computer science professor has begun working to develop the software.
Seales'sabbatical at Google was crucial to the new imaging method and he credits Google as the impetus for being unstuck in the project. UK students are also driving the progress.
The computer science professor is working on the software with a team of UK undergraduate and graduate students including:
In addition to UK students Seales is working with Seth Parker video editor at the UK Center for Visualization
and Virtual Environments and collaborating with Delattre in France as well as Roger Macfarlane a researcher at Brigham Young University.
They hope to travel back to Grenoble France in the spring to conduct major scans on the two scrolls scanned in 2009.
The scans will utilize Seales'software as well as the new x-ray technique. Seales said the project plan is to release working software
and datasets as soon as possible for scholars to examine. By project's end the team hopes to have created a software tool
and a set of scans of scrolls that together will transform the hopelessly damaged Herculaneum collection into new literary discoveries he said.
Unmasking the Herculaneum writings is only the beginning. Seales hopes the work to uncover and decipher these ancient scrolls will propel other efforts forward leading to an even greater impact on our understanding of classical history and literature and revolutionary digital imaging.
I dream of seeing renewed excavation at the Villa of the Papyri. Many believe that a treasure trove of undiscovered scrolls are waiting there to be unearthed.
If more are found these methods could be used to read them said Seales s
#Antibiotics bacteria resistance genes found in dust from feedlots The study was published online in the National Institutes of Environmental science's peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
The research was funded through a grant from Texas Tech's College of Arts and Sciences.
It is the first study documenting aerial transmission of antibiotic resistance from an open-air farm setting.
Phil Smith an associate professor of terrestrial ecotoxicology at the institute said that while scientists couldn't assess
if the amounts of these materials were dangerous to human health it helped explain a previously uncharacterized pathway by which antibiotic-resistant bacteria could travel long distances into places inhabited by humans.
The findings come weeks after a report commissioned by British Prime minister David cameron concluded that failure to battle drug-resistant infections
and their causes could result in 10 million extra deaths a year by 2050 at a cost of $100 trillion to the global economy.
You can look in the news and people are raising red flags about antibiotic resistance all the time Smith said.
Microbes are pretty promiscuous with their genetic information and they share it across species fairly easily.
and how it moves in the environment. This is an attempt to provide better clarity on that issue.
Everyone is fairly certain antibiotic resistance comes from extensive use of antibiotics in animal-based agriculture.
How does it get from where the drugs are used into the human environment and natural environment? Smith said scientists collected air samples upwind and downwind of each feedlot.
Because the antibiotics are present on the particulate matter with bacteria the selective pressure for bacteria to retain their resistance remains during their flight said Greg Mayer an associate professor of molecular toxicology at the institute.
#NASA Microsoft collaboration will allow scientists to'work on Mars'NASA and Microsoft have teamed up to develop software called Onsight,
a new technology that will enable scientists to work virtually on Mars using wearable technology called Microsoft Hololens.
Developed by NASA's Jet propulsion laboratory in Pasadena, California, Onsight will give scientists a means to plan and,
and how we understand the Mars environment surrounding the rover.""Onsight will use real rover data
and extend the Curiosity mission's existing planning tools by creating a 3-D simulation of the Martian environment where scientists around the world can meet.
Program scientists will be able to examine the rover's worksite from a first-person perspective, plan new activities and preview the results of their work firsthand."
"We believe Onsight will enhance the ways in which we explore Mars and share that journey of exploration with the world,"said Jeff Norris, JPL's Onsight project manager.
Until now, rover operations required scientists to examine Mars imagery on a computer screen, and make inferences about
The Onsight system uses holographic computing to overlay visual information and rover data into the user's field of view.
Holographic computing blends a view of the physical world with computer-generated imagery to create a hybrid of real and virtual.
members of the Curiosity mission team don a Microsoft Hololens device, which surrounds them with images from the rover's Martian field site.
They then can stroll around the rocky surface or crouch down to examine rocky outcrops from different angles.
"Previously, our Mars explorers have been stuck on one side of a computer screen. This tool gives them the ability to explore the rover's surroundings
The joint effort to develop Onsight with Microsoft grew from an ongoing partnership to investigate advances in human-robot interaction.
The tool will assist researchers in better understanding the environment and workspace of robotic spacecraft--something that can be quite challenging with their traditional suite of tools.
and increases survival of recipients, according to a series of animal studies by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of medicine and the Mcgowan Institute for Regenerative medicine.
The system could be tested with transplant patients at UPMC later this year. The findings, which were published online in the American Journal of Transplantation,
suggest that it's possible to use the technique of"machine perfusion"with a newly created cell-free oxygenated solution to expand the number of high-quality livers available for transplant,
explained senior investigator Paulo Fontes, M d.,UPMC transplant surgeon, associate professor, Starzl Transplantation Institute, Department of Surgery, Pitt School of medicine,
creating an environment that supports normal function. The integrity of the cells and vital metabolic activity is sustained for eventual transplantation of the organ."
The team transplanted six pigs with livers that had been kept for nine hours, roughly the average time between recovery of the organ and transplantation into a recipient, in the MP system and another six with organs placed in the standard container.
They found that 100 percent of the pigs who got MP livers survived compared to 33 percent of those who received conventionally preserved organs.
and analyses of multiple biomarkers including inflammatory mediators indicated that the MP livers had been preserved better.
Also,"it was immediately obvious to us that the pigs who received MP livers looked much healthier
and easily moved around their pens just hours after they woke up from the surgery,
"The data from the studies have been shared with federal regulators, he added, with the aim of launching a clinical trial to test the system at UPMC this year."
When heated up for several hours the gold is moving into the material perpendicular to the surface like nanometer-sized spheres.
Nine hours of heating gives a tunnel of 800 nanometers in length for example and a diameter of 25 nanometer:
All nanotunnels together then form a sieve. Leaving the tunnel closed at one end leaves open the possibility of creating molds for nano structures.
Once heating to close to their melting point the gold discs--diameter one micron-don't spread out over the surface
but they form spheres. They push away the siliciumdioxide causing a circular'ridge'a tiny dam.
In that case a DNA-string is pulled through one of these nanochannels after which the building blocks of DNA the nucleotides can be analysed subsequently.
Furthermore De Vreede expects the'gold method'to be applicable to other ceramic materials as well.
His recent experiments on silicium nitride indicate that t
#Key factor discovered in formation of metastases in melanoma Melanoma, the most aggressive of all skin cancer strains, is often fatal for patients due to the pronounced formation of metastases.
Until now, a melanoma's rampant growth was attributed mainly to genetic causes, such as mutations in certain genes.
However, researchers from the University of Zurich now reveal that so-called epigenetic factors play a role in the formation of metastases in malignant skin cancer.
This opens up new possibilities for future cancer treatments. Patients who visit the doctor because of malignant skin cancer often go too late--the aggressive cancer has formed already numerous metastases in their bodies.
This rapid malignant metastatic formation of melanoma, was previously put down to the high mutation rate that is characteristic of melanoma,
i e. genetic changes that stimulate the growth of cancer cells. Various cancer drugs therefore target the signaling pathways activated in the process, some
of which have recorded astonishingly positive results in the clinic and are able to prolong the lives of seriously sick patients.
Unfortunately, however, in most cases a kind of resistance develops: Eventually, the cancer cells no longer respond to the drug
and the tumor spreads again. Evidently, the cancer cells have found new ways to grow. A team of researchers headed by Professor Lukas Sommer from the University of Zurich's Institute of Anatomy has now found a possible explanation for this dynamic behavior in cancer cells:
The scientists believe that, depending on the prevalent conditions, cancer cells are able to"read"different genes and use them to their own end.
A highly active epigenetic factor in cancer cells The readability of genes is controlled by epigenetic factors, namely factors
whether epigenetic factors are especially active in melanoma cells --and stumbled across EZH2, an epigenetic control protein found very frequently in malignant melanoma cells compared to normal cells.
Joining forces with dermatologists and oncologists from the University Hospital in Zurich and backed by the University Research Priority Program"Translational Cancer Research,
"Sommer's team was able to demonstrate that, in melanoma cells, the epigenetic factor EZH2 controls genes that govern tumor growth as well as genes that are important for the formation of metastases.
In their study, the researcher exploited this central position of EZH2 to combat the cancer:
They used a pharmacological inhibitor to suppress the activity of EZH2. As a result, the researchers were able to prevent the growth and malignant spread of the cancer in the animal model and human melanoma cells."
"To our astonishment, we were able to use the approach to influence the progression of the disease,
even if tumors had developed already, "explains Sommer. Epigenetic factors like EZH2 therefore appear to be highly promising targets for future cancer treatments,
especially combined with other drugs that are already available e
#New technique for growing high-efficiency perovskite solar cells This week in the journal Science, Los alamos National Laboratory researchers reveal a new solution-based hot-casting technique
that allows growth of highly efficient and reproducible solar cells from large-area perovskite crystals.""These perovskite crystals offer promising routes for developing low-cost, solar-based, clean global energy solutions for the future,"said Aditya Mohite,
the Los alamos scientist leading the project. State-of-the-art photovoltaics using high-purity, large-area, wafer-scale single-crystalline semiconductors grown by sophisticated,
high temperature crystal-growth processes are seen as the future of efficient solar technology. Solar cells composed of organic-inorganic perovskites offer efficiencies approaching that of silicon,
but they have been plagued with some important deficiencies limiting their commercial viability. It is this failure that the Los alamos technique successfully corrects.
The researchers fabricated planar solar cells from pervoskite materials with large crystalline grains that had efficiencies approaching 18%
among the highest reported in the field of perovskite-based light-to-energy conversion devices. The cells demonstrate little cell-to-cell variability,
resulting in devices showing hysteresis-free photovoltaic response, which had been a fundamental bottleneck for stable operation of perovskite devices."
"Characterization and modeling attribute the improved performance to reduced bulk defects and improved charge-carrier mobility in large-grain pervoskite materials,"said Mohite,
"and we've demonstrated that the crystalline quality is on par with that observed for high-quality semiconductors like silicon and gallium arsenides."
"The researchers anticipate that their crystal growth technique will lead the field towards synthesis of wafer-scale crystalline perovskites necessary for the fabrication of high-efficiency solar-cells
and be applicable to several other material systems plagued by polydispersity, defects and grain boundary recombination in solution-processed thin-films.
Video: https://www. youtube. com/watch? v=7jifnfoj3oy&feature=youtu. b b
#Medicaid'fee bump'to primary care doctors associated with better access to appointments The increase in Medicaid reimbursement for primary care providers,
a key provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), was associated with a 7. 7 percentage points increase in new patient appointment availability without longer wait times,
according to results of a new 10-state study--co-authored by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the Urban Institute,
and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation--published online-first by the New england Journal of Medicine.
The study provides the first research-based evaluation of the association between the ACA's two-year Medicaid fee bump--for
which federal funding expired on December 31, 2014--and appointment availability for Medicaid patients seeking new patient primary care appointments at physician offices that participate in Medicaid."
"These findings provide early evidence that the so-called Medicaid primary care'fee bump'had intended the impact of increasing appointment availability for Medicaid patients,
despite the various complexities and hurdles the policy faced,"said the study's lead author, Daniel Polsky, Phd, executive director of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania."
"Our intention is for this evaluation to help inform state and federal legislative action around
whether to maintain these reimbursement increases or to default back to lower levels in 2015 and beyond."
"The study, conducted by a team of physician scientists and public policy researchers at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics and the Perelman School of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania,
and health policy colleagues at the Urban Institute, utilized trained field staff, posing as Medicaid and privately insured patients seeking new-patient primary care appointments, calling offices in two
and parent study principal investigator, Karin V. Rhodes, MD, MS, director of the department of Emergency Medicine's Center for Emergency Care Policy and Research."
"However, these findings suggest that higher Medicaid payments are an effective strategy for ensuring Medicaid patient access to primary care providers,
and gives policymakers some concrete data to consider moving forward.""The other study authors include Michael Richards, MD, Phd,
and Simon Basseyn, MD/MBA candidate from the University of Pennsylvania, along with Douglas Wissoker, Phd, Genevieve M. Kenney, Phd,
Reductions of that magnitude would offset some of the gains in appointment availability identified in this new study,"observed Stephen Zuckerman, co-director of the Urban Institute's Health policy Center r
#Neuroscientists lead global consortium to crack brain's genetic code In the largest collaborative study of the brain to date,
researchers from the Keck School of medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) led a global consortium of 190 institutions to identify eight common genetic mutations that appear to age the brain an average of three years.
The discovery could lead to targeted therapies and interventions for Alzheimer's disease, autism and other neurological conditions.
An international team of roughly 300 scientists known as the Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta Analysis (ENIGMA) Network pooled brain scans
and genetic data worldwide to pinpoint genes that enhance or break down key brain regions in people from 33 countries.
"ENIGMA's scientists screen brain scans and genomes worldwide for factors that help or harm the brain--this crowdsourcing and sheer wealth of data gives us the power to crack the brain's genetic code,
"said Paul Thompson, Ph d.,Keck School of medicine of USC professor and principal investigator of ENIGMA.""Our global team discovered eight genes that may erode
Any change in those genes appears to alter your mental bank account or brain reserve by 2 or 3 percent.
The discovery will guide research into more personalized medical treatments for Alzheimer's, autism, depression and other disorders."
if the genetic mutations are implicated in disease. The ENIGMA researchers screened millions of"spelling differences"in the genetic code to see which ones affected the size of key parts of the brain in magnetic resonance images (MRIS) from 30,717 individuals.
The MRI analysis focused on genetic data from seven regions of the brain that coordinate movement, learning, memory and motivation.
The group identified eight genetic variants associated with decreased brain volume several found in over one-fifth of the world's population.
People who carry one of those eight mutations had, on average, smaller brain regions than brains without a mutation but of comparable age;
some of the genes are implicated in cancer and mental illness. In October 2014, the NIH invested nearly $32 million in its Big data Initiative,
creating 12 research hubs across the United states to improve the utility of biomedical data. USC's two BD2K centers of excellence, including ENIGMA,
"The ENIGMA Center's work uses vast datasets as engines of biomedical discovery; it shows how each individual's genetic blueprint shapes the human brain,
"said Philip Bourne, Ph d.,associate director for data science at the NIH.""This'Big data'alliance shows what the NIH Big data to Knowledge (BD2K) Program envisions achieving with our 12 Centers of Excellence for Big data Computing
#Erectile dysfunction drugs could protect liver from sepsis-induced damage Infection can lead to the release of chemicals that cause whole-body inflammation
which can cause life-threatening damage to organs including the liver and kidneys explained senior investigator Timothy Billiar M d. professor and chair of surgery Pitt School of medicine.
Sepsis is a leading cause of death in the intensive care unit. Sepsis is a very challenging problem so the possibility that we might be able to repurpose a drug that is in use and well understood is very exciting Dr. Billiar said.
Sepsis triggers production of a protein called tumor necrosis factor or TNF which helps fight infection but is sustained harmful at high levels.
The researchers found in a mouse model of sepsis that sildenafil more commonly known as Viagra induced the liver to produce greater amounts of a protein called CYCLIC GMP
which in turn led cells to shed surface proteins called TNF receptor reducing TNF signaling in the cells and preventing liver damage.
Experiments with human liver cells also showed the protective effects of the drug. Our study suggests that increasing the bioavailability of CYCLIC GMP might be beneficial in ameliorating the inflammation associated with sepsis Dr. Billiar said.
Sildenafil and other ED drugs might be a good approach to try early in the course of the illness to forestall organ damage.
The research team plans to verify their findings in a large animal model of sepsis s
#Transparent artificial nacre: A brick wall at the nanoscale Natural materials have extraordinary mechanical properties,
which are sophisticated based on arrangements and combinations of multiple building blocks. One key aspect of today materials research
therefore is to develop bio-inspired materials reaching to the properties of natural materials or even exceeding those in certain functionalities.
Scientists have developed now a nacre-inspired nanocomposite that combines exceptional mechanical properties with glass-like transparency and a high gas-and fire-barrier.
The structure of nacre resembles a brick wall at the microscopic scale: Calcium carbonate platelets('bricks')alternate with soft biopolymer layers('mortar'.
'While the solid platelets serve as the load bearing and reinforcing part, energy can be dissipated into the soft polymer segments.
Together, this results in a lightweight material that is considered as the gold standard of natural materials
since it is both remarkably stiff and tough, a combination of features that is hard to realize in synthetic materials.
Previous approaches to synthesize nacre-mimetics were not feasible on the large scale due to energy-intensive and laborious multistep procedures.
Also, it was not possible to synthesize transparent nacre-mimetic films and foils. Andreas Walther and his team decided to use synthetic nanoclays for their nacre-mimetic materials.
This significantly improved the material's transparency. The Aachen-based research group also refined the underlying preparation procedure"Mussels grow nacre in a lengthy process.
For our nanocomposites, we instead apply a rapid self-assembly process, "the chemist explains. First, the researchers coat the clays with a layer of polyvinylalcohol('mortar on the brick')and subsequently,
these core/shell particles self-assemble into a thin film upon water removal. The whole procedure takes less then 24 hours.
To learn more about how the dimensions of the nanoclays influence the characteristics of the resulting nanocomposite,
Walther and colleagues compared nanoplatelets of different size.""The nacre-mimetics based on small clays are very tough.
However, if we use large clays with an aspect ratio of 3500, the resulting nacre-mimetics are both extremely stiff and strong.
Their mechanical properties actually reach close to those of fiber composites, which are far more laborious to prepare,
"says Phd student Paramita Das. The glass-like transparency and the high gas barrier of the nanocomposite are an extra benefit of the material.
This outstanding combination of features makes the nacre-mimetic material a promising candidate for future applications,
not only as a structural material, but also for gas storage applications and food packaging. In addition, it may be used as an advanced substrate and for encapsulation of oxygen-sensitive organic electronics in flexible displays a
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