Brain

Few studies have investigated the potential impact of caregivers and caregiver factors on older adults' likelihood of being hospitalized. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society has now provided some insights.

Harsh environments that are inhospitable to existing technologies could now be monitored using sensors based on graphene. An intriguing form of carbon, graphene comprises layers of interconnected hexagonal rings of carbon atoms, a structure that yields unique electronic and physical properties with possibilities for many applications.

"Graphene has been projected as a miracle material for years now, but its application in harsh environmental conditions was unexplored," says Sohail Shaikh, who has developed the new sensors, together with KAUST's Muhammad Hussain.

A warming climate and more frequent wildfires do not necessarily mean the western United States will see the forest loss that many scientists expect. Dry forest margins may be more resilient to climate change than previously thought if managed appropriately, according to Penn State researchers.

East Hanover, NJ. September 22, 2020. A team of experts in disability employment summarized advances in outcomes being achieved in individuals recovering from spinal cord injury. Their article, "30 Years after the Americans with Disabilities Act: Perspectives on employment for persons with spinal cord injury," (DOI: 10.1016/j.pmr.2020.04.007), was published online on June 7, 2020 in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North America.

Researchers have developed the world's first photodetector that can see all shades of light, in a prototype device that radically shrinks one of the most fundamental elements of modern technology.

Photodetectors work by converting information carried by light into an electrical signal and are used in a wide range of technologies, from gaming consoles to fibre optic communication, medical imaging and motion detectors.
Currently photodetectors are unable to sense more than one colour in the one device.

Scientists at Cincinnati Children's used human intestinal organoids grown from stem cells to discover how our bodies control the absorption of nutrients from the food we eat. They further found that one hormone might be able to reverse a congenital disorder in babies who cannot adequately absorb nutrients and need intravenous feeding to survive.

An international team of researchers has now found that computerised training can support preterm children's academic success. In their randomised controlled study "Fit for School", the researchers compared two learning apps. The project at the University Hospital Essen and at Ruhr-Universität Bochum was funded by Mercator Research Center Ruhr (Mercur) with approximately 300,000 Euros for four years. Results have been published online as unedited manuscript in the journal Pediatric Research on 12 September 2020.

The functional ability of older people is nowadays better when it is compared to that of people at the same age three decades ago. This was observed in a study conducted at the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. The study compared the physical and cognitive performance of people nowadays between the ages of 75 and 80 with that of the same-aged people in the 1990s.

Late blight is the most important pathogen in potato and causes devastation worldwide. The disease, caused by the oomycete Phytophthora infestans, was the trigger of the Irish Famine and still one of the most serious threats to potato production that causes significant economic losses.

October Issue SLAS Technology Features Cover Article, "Role of Digital Microfluidics in Enabling Access to Laboratory Automation and Making Biology Programmable"

Oak Brook, IL - The October issue of SLAS Technology features the cover article, "Role of Digital Microfl-uidics in Enabling Access to Laboratory Automation and Making Biology Programmable" by Varun B. Kothamachu, Ph.D., Sabrina Zaini and Federico Muffatto (Digi.Bio).

U.S. adults increasingly experienced symptoms associated with acute stress and depression as COVID-19 cases and deaths skyrocketed between mid-March and mid-April 2020, according to a study of more than 6,500 people from three large, nationally representative cohorts. These symptoms were related to preexisting mental and physical health conditions, as well as secondary stressors such as job and wage loss.

HOUSTON - (Sept. 18, 2020) - Points matter when designing nanoparticles that drive important chemical reactions using the power of light.

Researchers at Rice University's Laboratory for Nanophotonics (LANP) have long known that a nanoparticle's shape affects how it interacts with light, and their latest study shows how shape affects a particle's ability to use light to catalyze important chemical reactions.

In the past decade, researchers have engineered an array of new tools that control the balance of genetic inheritance. Based on CRISPR technology, such gene drives are poised to move from the laboratory into the wild where they are being engineered to suppress devastating diseases such as mosquito-borne malaria, dengue, Zika, chikungunya, yellow fever and West Nile. Gene drives carry the power to immunize mosquitoes against malarial parasites, or act as genetic insecticides that reduce mosquito populations.

Allowing yourself a few minutes of downtime significantly boosts mental and physical relaxation. Research by psychologists at the University of Konstanz observed higher levels of psychological and physiological relaxation in people after only ten minutes of receiving a massage. Even ten minutes of simple rest increased relaxation, albeit to a lesser degree than massage.

To capture panoramic views in a single shot, photographers typically use fisheye lenses -- ultra-wide-angle lenses made from multiple pieces of curved glass, which distort incoming light to produce wide, bubble-like images. Their spherical, multipiece design makes fisheye lenses inherently bulky and often costly to produce.