Clustering and Predictive Artificial Intelligence Predicts Characterization of Emerging Contaminants in Wastewater. Expected to be used in water treatment facilities by shortening difficult analytical procedures. The global consumption of pharmaceuticals is growing rapidly every year, reaching 4 billion doses in 2020. As more and more pharmaceuticals are metabolized by the human body and enter sewage and wastewater treatment plants, the amount and types of trace substances found in them are also increasing. When these trace substances enter rivers and oceans…
MHH researcher is involved in two EU gene therapy projects and is developing new viral vectors for the safe and efficient transfer of curative genes. Gene therapies are aimed at curing severe, barely treatable monogenetic diseases, i.e. those caused by a defect in a single gene. Hopes are correspondingly high. Some gene therapies have already been approved in Europe – for example for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a congenital disease of the motor neurones that leads to severe muscle weakness…
By tightly regulating nitrogen uptake, microorganisms avoid overeating nitrogen and thus wasting energy. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology now reveal how some methanogenic archaea manage to do so. Life is not possible without nitrogen. There are many ways for organisms to acquire nitrogen. For example, humans eat proteins for their high nitrogen content. Most microorganisms take up nitrogen from their environment in the form of ammonia (NH3). As this process consumes cellular energy – which is…
When people develop myelodysplastic neoplasms (MDS), the healthy maturation of blood cells is impaired. Severe forms, known as higher-risk MDS, are characterised by rapid progression, severe symptoms and often a transition to acute leukaemia. Patients for whom potentially curative or intensive treatments, such as stem cell transplantation or high-dose chemotherapy, are not suitable, have very few alternative treatment options. An international clinical trial led by Professor Uwe Platzbecker from the University of Leipzig Medical Center, in collaboration with a large…
Tiny particles such as ice crystals or ash particles tend to oscillate as they settle through the atmosphere. In their experiments, the scientists were able to track non-spherical particles of size smaller than 1 millimeter with unprecedented accuracy. Their observations gave rise to a model which can help to refine prediction on air pollutants or weather forecasts. The atmosphere contains many tiny solid particles. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS) and the University of Göttingen…
Research suggests that a wearable patch featuring electrically triggered microneedles for on-demand drug delivery could be the next frontier in treatment of neurodegenerative disorders and neurological injuries. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill scientists created a new drug delivery system, called the Spatiotemporal On-Demand Patch (SOP), which can receive commands wirelessly from a smartphone or computer to schedule and trigger the release of drugs from individual microneedles. The patch’s thin, soft platform resembles a Band-Aid and was designed to…
A research group led by Prof. WANG Hui from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has introduced a metal-free nanozyme based on graphene quantum dots (GQDs) for highly efficient tumor chemodynamic therapy (CDT). The study was published in Matter. GQDs represent a promising and cost-effective means of addressing the toxicity concerns associated with metal-based nanozymes in tumor CDT. However, the limited catalytic activity of GQDs has posed significant challenges for their clinical application, particularly under…
Recently, a research team led by Prof. LI Xianfeng from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) developed a 70 kW-level high power density vanadium flow battery stack. Compared with the current 30kW-level stack, this stack has a volume power density of 130kW/m3, and the cost is reduced by 40%. Vanadium flow batteries are one of the preferred technologies for large-scale energy storage. At present, the initial investment of vanadium flow batteries is relatively high. Stack is the…
A simple blood test could perform better than a complex test thanks to mathematical modeling. Diabetes often remains undetected until it has already damaged organs or nerves. This is partly due to the fact that diagnosis at an early stage is time-consuming and difficult. An international team of researchers headed by Associate Professor Dr. Johannes Dietrich from the Department of Medicine I of Ruhr University Bochum at St. Josef Hospital in Bochum, Germany, has shown that a mathematical calculation based…
Molecular defense system protects bacteria from viruses and at the same time makes them susceptible to antibiotics. Bacteria have an immune system that protects them against viruses known as bacteriophages. A research team from the Universities of Tübingen and Würzburg has now shown how this immune system enhances the effect of specific antibiotics against the cholera pathogen Vibrio cholerae. The immune system is the reason why this bacterium is particularly sensitive to one of the oldest known classes of antibiotics…
Kenshu Shimada at DePaul University co-authors research with 26 shark experts. A new scientific study shows that the prehistoric gigantic shark, Megalodon or megatooth shark, which lived roughly 15-3.6 million years ago nearly worldwide, was a more slender shark than previous studies have suggested. Formally called Otodus megalodon, it is typically portrayed as a super-sized, monstrous shark in novels and sci-fi films, including “The Meg.” Previous studies suggest the shark likely reached lengths of at least 50 to 65 feet…
How a few soldier cells confer virulence to an entire bacterial population by sacrificing themselves. You suddenly feel sick – pathogenic bacteria have managed to colonize and spread in your body! The weapons they use for their invasion are harmful toxins that target the host’s defense mechanisms and vital cell functions. Before these deadly toxins can attack host cells, bacteria must first export them from their production site – the cytoplasm – using dedicated secretion systems. The group of Stefan…
Researchers at the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG) have discovered a new quality control mechanism that regulates the energy production in human cells. This process takes place in mitochondria, the power plants of the cell. Malfunctions of mitochondria lead to serious diseases of the nerves, the muscles and the heart. The findings could contribute to the development of new therapies for affected patients. The results have been published in the renowned Molecular Cell journal. (umg) Mitochondria are the power plants…
Worcester Polytechnic Institute researchers unlock secret to upcycling organic compound. WPI Researchers have developed a material to remove urea from water and potentially convert it into hydrogen gas. By building these materials of nickel and cobalt atoms with carefully tailored electronic structures, the group has unlocked the potential to enable these transition metal oxides and hydroxides to selectively oxidize urea in an electrochemical reaction. The study, led by Xiaowei Teng, the James H. Manning professor of Chemical Engineering at WPI, was recently published in…
MIT chemists developed a battery cathode based on organic materials, which could reduce the EV industry’s reliance on scarce metals. Many electric vehicles are powered by batteries that contain cobalt — a metal that carries high financial, environmental, and social costs. MIT researchers have now designed a battery material that could offer a more sustainable way to power electric cars. The new lithium-ion battery includes a cathode based on organic materials, instead of cobalt or nickel (another metal often used…
A system designed at MIT could allow sensors to operate in remote settings, without batteries. MIT researchers have developed a battery-free, self-powered sensor that can harvest energy from its environment. Because it requires no battery that must be recharged or replaced, and because it requires no special wiring, such a sensor could be embedded in a hard-to-reach place, like inside the inner workings of a ship’s engine. There, it could automatically gather data on the machine’s power consumption and operations…
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