242 articles from MONDAY 1.6.2020

Researchers develop viable sodium battery

Washington State University and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory researchers have created a sodium-ion battery that holds as much energy and works as well as some commercial lithium-ion battery chemistries, making for a potentially viable battery technology out of abundant and cheap materials. The team reports one of the best results to date for a sodium-ion battery.

Researchers have developed a first-principles quantum Monte Carlo package called TurboRVB

'TurboRVB' is a first-principles quantum Monte Carlo software package developed by Prof. Sandro Sorella (SISSA/Italy) and his collaborators. Very recently, Assist. Prof. Kosuke Nakano at Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST/Japan) and his collaborators have published a review paper in The Journal of Chemical Physics [J. Chem. Phys. 152, 204121, 2020]. The published paper...

Researchers identify a moving target in small cell lung tumors

About 15% of lung cancers are classified as small cell lung cancer. Recent studies have indicated that four major subtypes of small cell lung cancer exist, yet approaches to tailor treatment of these subtypes have not yet become standard of care. Today in the journal Cancer Cell, scientists outline new findings about the origins of these lung cancer subtypes, paving the way for a new foundation to...

Researchers identify key immune checkpoint protein that operates within T cells

A new study led by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC - James) has identified a protein within certain immune cells that is required for optimal immune responses to cancer. The findings, reported in the journal Science Advances, also suggest that the protein might be useful for predicting...

Researchers map SARS-CoV-2 infection in cells of nasal cavity, bronchia, lungs

Researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill characterized the specific ways in which SARS-CoV-2 infects the nasal cavity to a great degree -- replicating specific cell types -- and infects and replicates progressively less well in cells lower down the respiratory tract. The findings suggest the virus tends to become firmly established first in the nasal cavity, but in some cases the virus is aspirated into the...

Russian scientists to improve the battery for sensors

Researchers of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) approached the creation of a solid-state thin-film battery for miniature devices and sensors. Scientists were able to obtain the cathode material, lithium nickelate using the Atomic Layer Deposition method.

Scientists discover new forms of feldspars

In high-pressure experiments, scientists have discovered new forms of the common mineral feldspar. At moderate temperatures, these hitherto unknown variants are stable at pressures of Earth's upper mantle, where common feldspar normally cannot exist. The discovery could change the view at cold subducting plates and the interpretation of seismologic signatures, as the team around DESY scientist...

Sea snail, human insulin hybrid could lead to better diabetes treatments

Nearly a century after insulin was discovered, an international team of researchers including University of Utah Health scientists report that they have developed the world's smallest, fully functional version of the hormone, one that combines the potency of human insulin with the fast-acting potential of a venom insulin produced by predatory cone snails. The finding, based on animal studies,...

Smart textiles made possible by flexible transmission lines

EPFL researchers have developed electronic fibers that, when embedded in textiles, can be used to collect data about our bodies by measuring fabric deformation. Their technology employs flexible transmission lines and offers a host of applications, including in the medical industry.

Smart textiles powered by soft transmission lines

EPFL researchers have developed electronic fibers that, when embedded in textiles, can collect a wealth of information about our bodies by measuring subtle and complex fabrics deformations. Their technology relies on transmission line theory and offers a host of applications, such as in health care and robotics.

Solar Ring mission: A new concept of space exploration for understanding Sun and the inner heliosphere

A new concept of space exploration, Solar Ring mission, is proposed to deploy six spacecraft in the ecliptic plane to observe the Sun and interplanetary space surrounding our planets. The successful accomplishment of the mission will advance our understanding of the space environment that hold our life and enhance our capability in expanding the next new territory of human. The article published...

Solubilizer Captisol enables body to absorb authorized COVID-19 drug therapy

Remdesivir's formulation includes the solubilizer Captisol, developed at the University of Kansas, which allows remdesivir be administered to the patient. Captisol was invented and patented by Valentino Stella, University Distinguished Professor Emeritus, and Roger Rajewski, research professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry.

Squid studies suggest new route to therapy for ALS, targeting synaptic dysfunction

Yuyu Song of Harvard Medical School was a Grass Fellow at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) when she took advantage of a powerful research organism in neuroscience, the local squid, to start asking how a mutant protein associated with familial ALS behaves under controlled conditions. Her study, recently published in eNeuro, clarifies the mechanisms underlying neural dysfunction in ALS, and...

Study finds gender differences in active learning classrooms

Men participated more in an active learning course in science, technology, engineering and math, while women reported lower perceptions of their scientific abilities, were more aware of gender identity and more likely to feel judged based on gender, a new Cornell-led study has found.

Study in Chinese doctors shows mental toll of caring in the time of COVID-19

They worked in hospitals hundreds of miles from the epicenter of COVID-19. Their city locked down hard enough, and did enough testing, that it only had a few hundred cases of the disease. But hundreds of young Chinese doctors in a new study still experienced a sharp drop in mood, a rise in depression and anxiety symptoms, and a doubling of their fear of workplace violence, in the first month of...

Study shows today's atmospheric carbon dioxide levels greater than 23 million-year record

A common message in use to convey the seriousness of climate change to the public is: 'Carbon dioxide levels are higher today than they have been for the past one million years!' This new study by Brian Schubert (University of Louisiana at Lafayette) and coauthors Ying Cui and A. Hope Jahren used a novel method to conclude that today's carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are actually higher than they have...

Ten years of ecosystem services matrix: Review of a (r)evolution

One of the methods to assess Ecosystem Services (ES) - the benefits people obtain from ecosystems: the ES Matrix approach, has been increasingly used in the last decade. A review of its application, published in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal One Ecosystem, confirms its flexibility, appropriateness and utility for decision-making, as well as its ability to increase awareness. Nevertheless,...

The cascade to criticality

Combined theoretical and experimental work unveils a novel mechanism through which criticality emerges in quasiperiodic structures -- a finding that provides unique insight into the physics on the middle ground between order and disorder.

The consequences of exploiting the ocean depths

A group of international experts has just published an article in the prestigious review Nature in which they suggest responses to question such as how organisms live in the Twilight zone and how diverse they are; which organic processes transform and consume the zone's organic material; and how the organic material is carried into and out of it