154 articles from MONDAY 10.1.2022

Surgeons Transplant Pig Heart Into Human Patient For the First Time Ever

In a medical first, doctors transplanted a pig heart into a patient in a last-ditch effort to save his life and a Maryland hospital said Monday that he’s doing well three days after the highly experimental surgery. While it’s too soon to know if the operation really will work, it marks a step in the decades-long quest to one day use animal organs for life-saving transplants. Doctors...

Maryland doctors transplant pig’s heart into human patient in medical first

Patient is doing well three days after the highly experimental surgery, doctors say, though it’s too soon to know if it is a successIn a medical first, doctors in Maryland have transplanted a modified pig’s heart into a human patient in a last-ditch effort to save his life.Doctors at the University of Maryland medical center said Monday that the patient was doing well three days after the...

Physicists detect a hybrid particle held together by uniquely intense 'glue'

In the particle world, sometimes two is better than one. Take, for instance, electron pairs. When two electrons are bound together, they can glide through a material without friction, giving the material special superconducting properties. Such paired electrons, or Cooper pairs, are a kind of hybrid particle—a composite of two particles that behaves as one, with properties that are greater than...

Equivariant representations for molecular Hamiltonians and N-center atomic-scale properties

In the fields of chemistry and materials, most successful, widely used machine learning schemes introduced over the last decade aim to model molecular energies or interatomic potentials. Accordingly, the representations used to map atomic configurations into vectors of descriptors or features used as model inputs reflect fundamental properties of the interatomic potential such as invariance to...

Scientists reveal ultrafast melting dynamics in matter heated to extreme temperatures

Ordinary matter behaves very differently when subjected to extreme temperatures and pressures, such as that inside stellar and planetary cores. Conventional rules of condensed matter physics and plasma physics are not applicable in such scenarios. In particular, an extreme state known as "warm dense matter" (WDM) straddles the boundary of condensed matter physics and plasma physics.

C. elegans does not accidentally switch off its ability to detect salt

AMOLF researchers, collaborating with researchers from the Erasmus MC, have discovered a genetic mechanism that ensures that a nerve cell retains its identity once it has differentiated. This concerns a neuron in the worm C. elegans that can detect salt. Its identity is activated by a genetic switch during the cell's development. Jeroen van Zon and his colleagues have discovered how it is possible...

Personalizing treatment for severe limb injuries

Scientists have developed an innovative technique using small wearable sensors to gather data on how people -- who have suffered from a traumatic hand amputation -- use a prothesis versus a transplanted hand in everyday life. So far, the data shows people with a transplanted hand demonstrate a more balanced use of their hands than those who use a prothesis.

Higher olive oil intake associated with lower risk of CVD mortality

Consuming more than 7 grams (>1/2 tablespoon) of olive oil per day is associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease mortality, cancer mortality, neurodegenerative disease mortality and respiratory disease mortality, according to a new study. The study found that replacing about 10 grams/day of margarine, butter, mayonnaise and dairy fat with the equivalent amount of olive oil is associated...

Gauging the resilience of complex networks

Whether a transformer catches fire in a power grid, a species disappears from an ecosystem, or water floods a city street, many systems can absorb a certain amount of disruption. But how badly does a single failure weaken the network? And how much damage can it take before it tips into collapse?

New approach can help identify young children most at risk for obesity

Newly developed risk scores synthesize genetic information into an easy-to-interpret metric that could help clinicians identify young children most at risk of developing obesity. The study used a novel statistical methods to establish scoring criteria using data collected from children from birth to three years of age.

Deadly extreme weather year for US as carbon emissions soar

The United States staggered through a steady onslaught of deadly billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in an extra hot 2021, while the nation's greenhouse gas emissions last year jumped 6% because of surges in coal and long-haul trucking, putting America further behind its 2030 climate change cutting goal.

Problematic anonymous student feedback on teachers

Student evaluations, in the form of anonymous online surveys, are ubiquitous in Australian universities. Most students in most courses are offered the opportunity to rate the "quality" of their teachers and the course they take.

Chang'E-5 lander makes first onsite detection of water on moon

A joint research team led by Profs. Lin Yangting and Lin Honglei from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS) observed water signals in reflectance spectral data from the lunar surface acquired by the Chang'E-5 lander, providing the first evidence of in-situ detection of water on the Moon.

Rainwater-driven microbial fuel cells for power generation in remote areas

In a new report now published on Royal Society Open Science, Mohammed Taha Amen and a team of scientists in bio-nanosystem engineering, chemical engineering and microbiology at the Chonbuk National University of South Korea, and the Zagazig University, Egypt, showed the possibility of using rainwater as a sustainable analyte in an air-cathode microbial fuel cell (MFC). The results showed how the...