Administration of ketamine during general anesthesia preserved high-frequency EEG changes but lacked low-frequency modulation, suggesting neurophysiologic components of ketamine can be selectively altered.
Question Are the neurophysiologic signatures of ketamine altered by removal of conscious awareness under general anesthesia?
Findings This cohort study was a secondary analysis of participant-level data from 3 prospective studies in which subanesthetic ketamine was administered with or without general anesthesia. Unconsciousness was associated with preserved βγ power modulation but loss of θ augmentation.
Meaning These findings suggest that unconsciousness from general anesthesia was associated with separation of the neurophysiologic components of ketamine effects, providing a method to explore the contributions of distinct aspects of ketamine physiology to therapeutic effects.
For more than a decade, a class of drugs called BET inhibitors has been tested in cancer trials with high expectations. The biology looked promising. Many cancers depend on oncogenes that “Bromo- and Extra-Terminal domain” (BET) proteins help activate, so blocking BET proteins should slow tumor growth.
Plug-in solar panels are a cheaper, simpler alternative to professionally installed panels. But can they really reduce energy bills and are they safe? Matthew Sparkes investigates.
David J. Silvester, a mathematics professor at the University of Manchester, has developed a novel machine-learning method to detect sudden changes in fluid behavior, improving speed and the cost of identifying these instabilities and overcoming one of the major obstacles faced when using machine learning to simulate physical systems. The findings are published in the Journal of Computational Physics.
Computational simulations of mathematical models of fluid flow are essential for everyday applications ranging from predicting the weather to the assessment of nuclear reactor safety. The advent of this simulation capability over the past 50 years has revolutionized the development of fuel-efficient airplanes, and sail configurations on racing yachts can now be optimized in real time, providing the marginal gains needed to win races in the America’s Cup.
Optimized aerodynamics means that modern day cyclists can ride faster, golf balls fly further and Olympic swimmers consistently set world records. Computational fluid dynamics also enables the modeling of the flow of blood in the human heart, making the provision of patient-specific surgery possible.
Gas separation membranes are vital for carbon capture, biogas upgrading, and hydrogen purification, all of which require the separation of carbon dioxide from gases like nitrogen, methane and hydrogen. However, the membranes currently in use for these applications suffer from limitations like low throughput or performance under high pressure and humidity, low gas flow, instability, and reaction rate limits.
Plants may have inspired a solution to many of these issues with the way their leaves absorb CO2. In a new study, published in Nature Communications, a team of researchers tests out a plant-inspired, water-based membrane that offers highly selective and permeable gas separation that outperforms many other materials, while also providing a greener, safer, and potentially cheaper way to capture CO2 and purify gases.
How do radicals form in aqueous solutions when exposed to UV light? This question is important for health research and environmental protection. For example, with regard to the overfertilization of water bodies by intensive agriculture. A team at BESSY II has now developed a new method of investigating hydroxyl radicals in solution. By using a clever trick, the scientists gained surprising insights into the reaction pathway. The findings are published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Hydroxyl radicals (OH·) are found everywhere, from the troposphere to the cells of the human body. There, they cause oxidative stress and accelerate the aging process. They are also increasingly present in rivers and lakes, where they are formed by the photolysis of nitrogen oxides that have entered the water from over-fertilized soils. When UV radiation from sunlight strikes nitrogen oxides, hydroxyl radicals and a range of other radicals are generated. The chemistry of these radicals is extremely difficult to characterize accurately, as they react very quickly.
A team led by Professor Alexander Föhlisch of the HZB has investigated the chemistry of hydroxyl radicals formed from nitrogen oxides in water using X-ray absorption spectroscopy at the BESSY II X-ray source.
Stromatolites—and their close relatives, microbial mats—could be mistaken for what seems like a bunch of old dark rocks. But instead, they are dense, layered communities of microbes. Long before complex life such as animals or plants existed, stromatolites breathed the first molecules of oxygen into Earth’s atmosphere. Now, in a study published in Current Biology, researchers say they may also hold insights into how complex life began.
Associate Professor Brendan Burns, an evolutionary microbiologist at UNSW Sydney, is part of a team that identified a previously unknown microbe living in close partnership with another organism inside these “living fossils.” The work, co-led with researchers from the University of Technology Sydney and The University of Melbourne, could help solve one of life’s biggest mysteries: how simple cells first combined to form more complex life.
“Stromatolites could be more than ‘just’ a cradle of life where early microbial life flourished,” says A/Prof. Burns.