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Category: health – Page 4

Magnetic nanoparticles remove forever chemicals from water

PFAS, otherwise known as forever chemicals, have become commonplace in numerous everyday and industrial products. At the same time, they are some of the most problematic pollutants of our times: They are extremely durable, accumulate in the environment and in organisms and can only be removed from water with difficulty.

A team of researchers from FAU, Uniklinikum Erlangen and the Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority led by Prof. Dr. Marcus Halik from the Chair of Polymer Materials at FAU have developed a procedure to efficiently remove a wide range of different PFAS from water using functionalized magnetic nanoparticles. They have published their findings in the journal Materials Today.

Johannes Voß and Linda Rockmann from Halik’s team developed functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles with unique magnetic properties, whose surface was specifically adapted to bind to various PFAS. Once they are attached to the iron oxide, i.e. rust particles, the PFAS can simply be removed from the water using a magnet.

Scientists Link Heavy TV Watching to Brain Changes Decades Later

Heavy television viewing in middle age was linked to a troubling brain signature more than 20 years later.

Television may be doing more than filling quiet hours. A long-term study suggests that people who watched it most frequently in middle age later showed structural brain differences linked to memory loss, vascular damage, and dementia.

The findings, published in Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, challenge the idea that all sitting affects the brain in the same way. Time spent watching television was associated with poorer brain health decades later, while sitting at work showed a very different pattern.

One Common Vitamin Could Lower Toxic Alzheimer’s Proteins, Research Suggests

The benefits of vitamin D are many, with research suggesting it plays an important role in several facets of our health, from boosting our immunity to helping us counter harmful diseases.

As long as we don’t have too much of it, vitamin D is an essential part of a healthy body. But there’s still a lot we don’t know about just how far its goodness extends.

In recent years, numerous studies have demonstrated that low levels of vitamin D in older adults are associated with increased risk of cognitive impairment and clinical dementia.

New ultrasound technique breaches blood brain barrier to treat gliomas

In a promising sign for the potential of focused sound waves to improve care for brain tumors, UVA Health researchers have determined that tumors called gliomas may be even more receptive to targeted drug delivery than normal brain tissue.

While the research is still in its early stages, the findings help allay concerns that brain tumors might have properties that would make them stubbornly resistant to the cutting-edge approach. The UVA scientists are using tiny “microbubbles” that are activated by sound waves to open the brain’s natural protective barrier, known as the “blood-brain barrier,” so that drugs can enter exactly where needed.

Inside brain tumors, cancer cells mutate the structure of the blood-brain barrier and its function becomes unpredictable. In turn, this raises questions about how effectively focused ultrasound can deliver therapies in the brain tumor environment and what sizes of drug molecules can be delivered most effectively. The new research from UVA Health’s Focused Ultrasound Cancer Immunotherapy Center provides important insights on both fronts.

Loneliness Is Making People Sick — but Medicine Can’t Fix It Alone

Treating loneliness as a health issue may encourage action while obscuring the broader social conditions behind it.

Loneliness can damage health, but a healthcare system cannot rebuild communities or restore the social connections people have lost. A University of Michigan study warns that defining loneliness mainly as a medical concern may shift responsibility away from the wider social conditions that produce isolation.

Published in Social Problems, the research traces how chronic loneliness and social isolation became widely recognized as public health issues after studies connected them with greater risks of illness, premature death, and increased healthcare spending.

The Application of Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV): Vaccine Vectors and Tumor Therapy

Newcastle disease virus (NDV) is an avian pathogen with an unsegmented negative-strand RNA genome that belongs to the Paramyxoviridae family. While primarily pathogenic in birds, NDV presents no threat to human health, rendering it a safe candidate for various biomedical applications. Extensive research has highlighted the potential of NDV as a vector for vaccine development and gene therapy, owing to its transcriptional modularity, low recombination rate, and lack of a DNA phase during replication. Furthermore, NDV exhibits oncolytic capabilities, efficiently eliciting antitumor immune responses, thereby positioning it as a promising therapeutic agent for cancer treatment.

Spray-on coating traps particles more tightly and nearly doubles air filter lifespan

Breathing clean air is essential for human health, making air filters indispensable in homes, hospitals, workplaces and industrial settings. However, despite decades of advances in filter materials and design, a major challenge remains. Capturing airborne particles is only half the battle; keeping them securely trapped is equally important.

Conventional air filters rely on weak adhesive forces, allowing some captured particles to detach and re-enter the air. This reduces filtration efficiency, shortens filter lifespan and highlights the need for smarter, more durable air filtration technologies.

Single patch merges multiple physiological signals for simpler health monitoring

Wearable health monitors have grown increasingly capable, but most are still limited by the fact that tracking different types of body signals requires separate sensors, each with its own circuitry and patch of skin. That leads to bulkier devices, higher power consumption and greater discomfort for anyone who needs round-the-clock monitoring.

A research team led by Assistant Professor Liu Yuxin from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS CDE), has developed a cross-modal skin sensor that overcomes this constraint.

Named X-Sig, the device fuses the body’s electrical impulses, such as heart rhythms and muscle signals, with its mechanical signals, such as pulse pressure waves and the forces generated by muscle contractions, into a single composite waveform transmitted through one channel.

Commander Jessica Meir and Crew Check Spacesuits, Prep for Spacewalks

The seven-member Expedition 75 crew worked throughout Tuesday on spacesuit checks, eye exams, and exercise research aboard the International Space Station. Earth imagery and lab inventory duties rounded out the day for the orbital residents.

NASA has scheduled three spacewalks in August to continue upgrading solar arrays, replace a communications antenna, and connect power and data cables in support of space station operations. Station commander Jessica Meir and flight engineer Anil Menon, both from NASA, will conduct the first spacewalk beginning at 7:35 a.m. EDT on Thursday, Aug. 6. The duo will spend about six-and-a-half hours in the vacuum of space preparing the orbital outpost for its seventh roll out solar array to augment its power system. Mission managers will discuss the upcoming spacewalks during a news conference on NASA+ beginning a at 2 p.m. EDT, Thursday, July 30, from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Meir and Menon joined flight engineers Jack Hathaway of NASA and Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) in the Quest airlock and checked out a pair of spacesuits. The quartet first verified the suits for comfort, mobility, and fitness for the upcoming spacewalks. Next, they powered on the suits and tested the life support and electronics systems. NASA will soon announce the spacewalkers for the second and third spacewalks.

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