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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 19, 2022 at 9:34am

A butterfly-stroke-like soft robotic swimmer that is fast and efficient

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 19, 2022 at 7:24am

What is a 'Carbon Cage,' and why are you stuck in one right now?

This knowledge is extremely important
Our current carbon-heavy economic system creates bars around us that stop effective climate change action. Here's why: The world is too accustomed to the luxuries and privileges which depend on co2 emissions

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 18, 2022 at 11:19am

How an Alzheimer’s gene ravages the brain

No gene variant is a bigger risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease than one called APOE4. But exactly how the gene spurs brain damage has been a mystery. A study has now linked APOE4 with faulty cholesterol processing in the brain, which in turn leads to defects in the insulating sheaths that surround nerve fibres and facilitate their electrical activity. Preliminary results hint that these changes could cause memory and learning deficits. And the work suggests that drugs that restore the brain’s cholesterol processing could treat the disease.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 18, 2022 at 11:09am

Study shows hundreds of thousands of tons of bacteria are being released by melting glaciers

A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions across Europe, the U.K. and Canada has found that hundreds of thousands of tons of bacteria are currently being released annually into the environment by melting glaciers in the northern latitudes. In their paper published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, the group describes sampling glacial runoff from multiple sites in Europe, North America and Greenland.

As climate change progresses, doomsday reports from around the world have proliferated. One alarming claim is that a virus or strain of bacteria will emerge from ancient ice that is impervious to the human immune system, killing off most, if not all, of humankind. In this new effort, the researchers have joined a growing effort to take samples of melting runoff from glaciers to learn more about their microbial ecosystems as a means to discover whether a threat exists, and if so, what sort.

The researchers did not study the bacteria individually, and thus did not spot any species that might pose a threat to human health. They did note that most of the bacteria were killed by the sun soon after exposure, suggesting that even if a human pathogen is among them, the chance of infection is slight. Bacteria in water samples, the researchers note, tend to have pigments that absorb sunlight, which further adds to warming in northern regions.

Ian T. Stevens et al, Spatially consistent microbial biomass and future cellular carbon release from melting Northern Hemisphere glacier surfaces, Communications Earth & Environment (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s43247-022-00609-0

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 18, 2022 at 11:05am

Nanostructured ceramic coatings do not fatigue, finds study

Extremely thin ceramic coatings can completely change the properties of technical components. Coatings are used, for example, to increase the resistance of metals to heat or corrosion. Coating processes play a role for large turbine blades as well as for extremely stressed tools in production technology.

Researchers now investigated what determines the stability of such coatings. And the results, some of which were obtained at the DESY synchrotron in Hamburg, are quite surprising: the ceramic layers break down in a completely different way than metals. Material fatigue hardly plays a role; the decisive factor is the intensity of extreme load peaks (the so called stress intensity factor). This finding will change the method used to measure and further improve the resistance of thin films in the future.

 L. Zauner et al, Assessing the fracture and fatigue resistance of nanostructured thin films, Acta Materialia (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.actamat.2022.118260

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The offshoot of cells visualized in real time

In a study recently published in the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, researchers from Kanazawa University use high-speed microscopy to capture the dynamics of nanosized sacs released from cells.

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Air pollution cools climate more than expected—this makes cutting c...

Air pollutants kill around 7 million people every year. Much of this pollution is tiny particles suspended in the air which, when inhaled, can cause people to develop heart and lung diseases, as well as cancer.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 18, 2022 at 11:00am

New technology for growing printed tissues for transplantation

Researchers have developed an innovative technology for growing tissue for transplantation by printing it into a microgel bath as support material.

Tissue printing is an innovative approach for creating tissue for transplantation. In this technique, also called bio-printing, living cells are embedded in biological ink and printed layer upon layer. The printed tissue then undergoes growth for days or weeks until it is ready for printing.

This new work focused on preventing the uneven shrinkage of the printed tissue in the weeks after printing. The solution was found through changing the medium in which the tissue is printed and grown.

The new concept, print-and-grow, is based on an original medium developed by the researchers—an innovative microgel used as a support material in the process, CarGrow, which is a substance mainly composed of carrageenan (Carrageenan-K) and is produced from red algae. In fact, the new support bath preserves the size of the tissue after printing and prevents it from shrinking and losing its shape.

This process allows reliable and controlled production of functional tissue in the desired size and shape. Since this material is transparent, it makes it possible for the scientists to monitor the development of the tissue through imaging.

The Technion researchers hope the new method will lead to the development of new technologies for bio-printing. 

Majd Machour et al, Print‐and‐Grow within a Novel Support Material for 3D Bioprinting and Post‐Printing Tissue Growth, Advanced Science (2022). DOI: 10.1002/advs.202200882

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 18, 2022 at 10:50am

Researchers discover how music could be used to trigger a deadly pathogen release

Researchers  have discovered that the safe operation of a negative pressure room—a space in a hospital or biological research laboratory designed to protect outside areas from exposure to deadly pathogens—can be disrupted by an attacker armed with little more than a smartphone.

According to UCI cyber-physical systems security experts, who shared their findings with attendees at the Association for Computing Machinery's recent Conference on Computer and Communications Security in Los Angeles, mechanisms that control airflow in and out of biocontainment facilities can be tricked into functioning irregularly by a sound of a particular frequency, possibly tucked surreptitiously into a popular song.

Someone could play a piece of music loaded on their smartphone or get it to transmit from a television or other audio device in or near a negative pressure room. If that music is embedded with a tone that matches the resonant frequency of the pressure controls of one of these spaces, it could cause a malfunction and a leak of deadly microbes.

Heating, ventilation and air conditioning infrastructure maintains the flow of fresh air into and contaminated air out of a given space. HVAC systems in scientific facilities typically include room pressure monitors, which in turn utilize differential pressure sensors that compare the atmospheres inside and outside rooms.

The researchers said that commonly used differential pressure sensors (DPSs) are vulnerable to remote manipulation, posing a previously unrealized threat to biosafety facilities. They tested their hypothesis on eight industry-standard DPSs from five manufacturers, demonstrating that all the devices operate with resonant frequencies in the audible range and are, therefore, subject to tampering.

When sound waves collide with the diaphragms inside a DPS, it starts vibrating with the same frequency. An informed attacker can use this technique to artificially displace the diaphragm, changing the pressure reading and causing the whole system to malfunction.

Attackers could thwart negative pressure room systems in a variety of ways. They could manipulate them wirelessly or pose as maintenance personnel to place an audio device inside or near such a room.A more sophisticated attack might involve perpetrators embedding sound-emitting technologies into a DPS before it's installed in a biocontainment facility.

In their conference presentation, the researchers suggested several countermeasures to prevent a musical assault on biosafety facilities. Sound dampening can be achieved by lengthening the sampling tube of a DPS's port by as much as 7 meters. The team also proposed enclosing the pressure port in a boxlike structure. Both these measures would reduce the sensitivity of the DPS.

Anomadarshi Barua et al, A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, Proceedings of the 2022 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (2022). DOI: 10.1145/3548606.3560643

Full paper (arXiv preprint): A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Spreading Deadly Pathogens Under the Di...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 17, 2022 at 10:34am

Climate change: Increasing heat waves will threaten every child, says UNICEF report

A new report by UNICEF, supported by University of Southampton researchers, says 559 million children currently exposed to high heat waves could rise to 2.02 billion globally by the year 2050.

The report, produced in collaboration with The Data for Children Collaborative, underscores the urgent need to address the impacts of global warming to future generations and follows on from previous work identifying specific risk to children from climate change (Child Climate Risk Index, UNICEF, 2021).

It comes as world leaders meet to discuss climate action this month at the COP27 conference in Egypt.

The report estimates that by 2050, all of the world's 2.02 billion children are expected to be exposed to high heat wave frequency, regardless of whether:

• the world achieves a "low greenhouse gas emission scenario" with an estimated 1.7 degrees of warming, or;
• a "very high greenhouse gas emission scenario" with an estimated 2.4 degrees of warming.

The report found that specifically high heat wave duration currently impacts 538 million (23%) of children globally and by 2050 will rise to:

• 1.6 billion at 1.7 degrees warming or;
• 1.9 billion at 2.4 degrees warming.

Heat waves are especially damaging to children, as they are less able to regulate their body temperature compared to adults, with babies and young children being at greater risk of heat-related mortality.

Further exposure to heat waves can result in children developing health problems such as chronic respiratory conditions, asthma, and cardiovascular diseases.

Heat waves can also affect children's environments, their safety, nutrition and access to water, and their education and future livelihood.

At a minimum, governments must urgently limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and double adaptation funding by 2025.

"This is the only way to save children's lives and futures—and the future of the planet."

https://www.unicef.org/reports/coldest-year-rest-of-their-lives-chi...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 17, 2022 at 8:51am

Over a billion young people are potentially at risk of hearing loss from headphones, earbuds, loud music venues

More than 1 billion teens and young people are potentially at risk of hearing loss because of their use of headphones and earbuds and attendance at loud music venues, concludes a pooled data analysis of the available evidence, published in the open access journal BMJ Global Health.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over 430 million people worldwide currently have disabling hearing loss. Young people are particularly vulnerable because of their use of personal listening devices (PLDs), such as smartphones, headphones and earbuds, and attendance at loud music venues, amid poor regulatory enforcement. Previously published research suggests that PLD users often choose volumes as high as 105 dB while average sound levels at entertainment venues range from 104 to 112 dB, exceeding permissible levels (80 dB for adults; 75 dB for children) even if for very short periods of time.

A group of 33 studies, corresponding to data from 35 records and 19,046 participants, was included in this research work to come to this conclusion; 17 records focused on PLD use and 18 focused on loud entertainment venues .

The pooled data analysis indicates that the prevalence of unsafe listening practices from PLD use and attendance at loud entertainment venues is common worldwide—24% and 48%, respectively, among teens and young peopel.

Based on these figures, the researchers estimate that the global number of teens and young adults who could potentially be at risk of hearing loss as a result ranges from 0.67 to 1.35 billion.

The researchers acknowledge some limitations to their findings, including the varied study design—a particular feature of the studies on entertainment venues—and the absence of standardized methodology.

These findings   prompted the researchers to conclude, "There is an urgent need for governments, industry, and civil society to prioritize global hearing loss prevention by promoting safe listening practices."

Prevalence and global estimates of unsafe listening practices in adolescents and young adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis, BMJ Global Health (2022). DOI: 10.1136/bmjgh-2022-010501

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 17, 2022 at 8:49am

Earth can regulate its own temperature over millennia, new study finds

The Earth's climate has undergone some big changes, from global volcanism to planet-cooling ice ages and dramatic shifts in solar radiation. And yet life, for the last 3.7 billion years, has kept on beating.

Now, a study by MIT researchers in Science Advances confirms that the planet harbors a "stabilizing feedback" mechanism that acts over hundreds of thousands of years to pull the climate back from the brink, keeping global temperatures within a steady, habitable range. Just how does it accomplish this? A likely mechanism is "silicate weathering"—a geological process by which the slow and steady weathering of silicate rocks involves chemical reactions that ultimately draw carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and into ocean sediments, trapping the gas in rocks. Scientists have long suspected that silicate weathering plays a major role in regulating the Earth's carbon cycle. The mechanism of silicate weathering could provide a geologically constant force in keeping carbon dioxide—and global temperatures—in check. But there's never been direct evidence for the continual operation of such a feedback, until now. The new findings are based on a study of paleoclimate data that record changes in average global temperatures over the last 66 million years. The MIT team applied a mathematical analysis to see whether the data revealed any patterns characteristic of stabilizing phenomena that reined in global temperatures on a geologic timescale. They found that indeed there appears to be a consistent pattern in which the Earth's temperature swings are dampened over timescales of hundreds of thousands of years. The duration of this effect is similar to the timescales over which silicate weathering is predicted to act. The results are the first to use actual data to confirm the existence of a stabilizing feedback, the mechanism of which is likely silicate weathering. This stabilizing feedback would explain how the Earth has remained habitable through dramatic climate events in the geologic past.

Constantin Arnscheidt, Presence or absence of stabilizing Earth system feedbacks on different timescales, Science Advances (2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adc9241

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