The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, developed the system, which can convert two waste streams into two chemical products at the same time – the first time this has been achieved in a solar-powered reactor.

The reactor converts carbon dioxide (CO2) and plastics into different products that are useful in a range of industries. In tests, CO2 was converted into syngas, a key building block for sustainable liquid fuels, and plastic bottles were converted into glycolic acid, which is widely used in the cosmetics industry. The system can easily be tuned to produce different products by changing the type of catalyst used in the reactor.

Converting plastics and greenhouse gases – two of the biggest threats facing the natural world – into useful and valuable products using solar energy is an important step in the transition to a more sustainable, circular economy. The results are reported in the journal Nature Synthesis.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s44160-022-00196-0

An antidote to teenage depression might be found in school gymnasiums and on sports fields, a major new review argues.

Supervised exercise programs are associated with significant reductions in symptoms of depression among children and teenagers, according to the analysis of data from 21 studies involving more than 2,400 kids.

"This is the first time that we've been able to put enough studies together so that we can make a pretty good conclusion to answer the question, 'Is physical activity and exercise good for children with depressive symptoms?'" said co-study author Walter Thompson, a retired professor of exercise physiology with Georgia State University in Atlanta. "The answer is overwhelmingly yes."

https://www.newsmax.com/health/health-news/sports-activity-physical/2023/01/06/id/1103344/

This ten-year study measured changes in the abundance of farmland birds on land managed under bird-focused lower- and higher-tier agri-environment schemes, as well as land no bird-friendly farming initiatives.

Under the higher-tier scheme, an average of 11% of the farm was devoted to bird-friendly measures, whereas <4% was managed under the lower-tier schemes. The authors specifically studied bird-friendly measures that provide seed-rich habitat for winter foraging, insect-rich habitat for feeding chicks, and nesting habitat for ground nesting species such as Lapwing. Higher-tier farms also received bespoke one-to-one management advice prior to the start of their agreements.

The results showed that when approximately 10% of a farm was devoted to bird-friendly farming practices under the higher-tier scheme, this benefitted over half of the farmland bird species in two of the three study regions. Although lower-tier provision generally failed to increase bird numbers, it helped to sustain populations of some species, which continued to decline in the absence of agri-environment support elsewhere.

The second part of the study asked what proportion of the farmed landscape would need to be placed into higher-tier agreements to recover farmland birds by 10% over ten years. The answer was similar in the two regions – 26% in the pastoral West Midlands and 31% in arable East Anglia.

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.14338

A new USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology study challenges existing ideas of how buildup of a protein called amyloid beta (Aβ) in the brain is related to Alzheimer’s disease.

While buildup of amyloid protein has been associated with Alzheimer’s-related neurodegeneration, little is known about how the protein relates to normal brain aging, said University Professor Caleb Finch, the study’s senior author and holder of the ARCO/William F. Kieschnick Chair in the Neurobiology of Aging at the USC Leonard Davis School.

To explore the levels of Aβ in human brains, the researchers analyzed tissue samples from both healthy brains and brains of patients with dementia. More severe Alzheimer’s cases were indicated by higher Braak staging scores, a measurement of how widely signs of Alzheimer’s pathology are found within the brain.

The analysis revealed that older, cognitively healthy brains showed similar amounts of dissolvable, non-fibrillar amyloid protein as brains of Alzheimer’s patients. But, as the researchers expected, the brains of Alzheimer’s patients had higher amounts of insoluble Aβ fibrils, the form of amyloid protein that aggregates to form the telltale “plaques” seen in the disease, said Max Thorwald, the study’s first author and a postdoctoral researcher at the USC Leonard Davis School.

https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/alz.12896

A short but intensive approach to "talk therapy" can help many combat veterans overcome post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a new clinical trial has found.

The study tested "compressed" formats of a standard PTSD treatment called prolonged exposure therapy, in which patients learn to gradually face the trauma-related memories they normally avoid.

Traditionally, that has meant therapy once a week, over the course of a few months.

But while prolonged exposure therapy is often effective for PTSD, there is room for improvement, according to Alan Peterson, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

In general, he said, prolonged exposure (PE) therapy does not work as well for combat veterans as it does for civilians with PTSD. In an earlier trial, Peterson and his colleagues found that about 60% of combat vets still met the criteria for PTSD six months after therapy.

So for the new trial, his team tested the effects of two compressed PE formats, where vets attended therapy every weekday for three weeks. It's a concept that some PTSD programs have been offering in recent years.

The general idea, Peterson explained, is that the short time window will help more patients stick with therapy. And the intensity of daily sessions, with patients devoting their time and energy toward getting better, might also boost effectiveness, he suggested.

For the study, the researchers randomly assigned 234 veterans with combat-related PTSD to one of two groups. One received 90-minute PE therapy sessions, five days a week, for three weeks.

Essentially, Peterson explained, PE encourages people to dig into their trauma-related memories, retelling their stories and learning to face — rather than avoid — situations and feelings that remind them of their trauma.

The other study group also had daily PE sessions, plus various "modules" that extended the treatment to a full day.

Some of those enhancements included education sessions that involved family members or friends, onsite "homework" assignments, and feedback from therapists.

In the end, the trial found, both groups fared equally well. More than 60% of patients saw a substantial reduction in their PTSD symptoms soon after therapy ended, and the improvements were largely maintained for six months.

https://www.circle-health.org/health-and-wellness/health-library/3-week-program-effective-in-helping-to-ease-combat-linked-ptsd

A new kind of solar panel, developed at the University of Michigan, has achieved 9% efficiency in converting water into hydrogen and oxygen—mimicking a crucial step in natural photosynthesis. Outdoors, it represents a major leap in the technology, nearly 10 times more efficient than solar water-splitting experiments of its kind.

But the biggest benefit is driving down the cost of sustainable hydrogen. This is enabled by shrinking the semiconductor, typically the most expensive part of the device. The team’s self-healing semiconductor withstands concentrated light equivalent to 160 suns.

Currently, humans produce hydrogen from the fossil fuel methane, using a great deal of fossil energy in the process. However, plants harvest hydrogen atoms from water using sunlight. As humanity tries to reduce its carbon emissions, hydrogen is attractive as both a standalone fuel and as a component in sustainable fuels made with recycled carbon dioxide. Likewise, it is needed for many chemical processes, producing fertilizers for instance.

“In the end, we believe that artificial photosynthesis devices will be much more efficient than natural photosynthesis, which will provide a path toward carbon neutrality,” said Zetian Mi, U-M professor of electrical and computer engineering who led the study reported in Nature.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05399-1

IRON intake was shown to have a positive effect on intelligence scores in children and adolescents from low- and middle- income countries (LMICs), in a new meta-analysis and systematic review.

The demonstrated effect was shown to increase with supplement dosage, with researchers highlighting that the “results suggest that oral iron intake can improve the cognitive development of children and adolescents living in LMICs.”

Researchers from Tsinghua University, Harvard University, Duke University, and the University of Southern California report their findings in Nutrients.

Due to the critical biological and physical development processes taking place throughout childhood and adolescence, it is vital to ensure a strong nutritional profile during this period to prevent deficiencies. However, iron deficiencies are highly common during this age because of the bodies’ inability to increase iron reserves with increased demand.

https://tribuneonlineng.com/iron-supplementation-is-beneficial-for-intelligence/

In the first two years of the pandemic, 40,830 children and teenagers lost their mothers to COVID-19 in Brazil. The conclusion is from an unprecedented study carried out by researchers from Fiocruz and the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), released by the Observatory of Children’s Health (Observa Infância). The article with the results was published with open access (12/19) in the Springer Nature Journal Archives of Public Health.

According to Observa Infância’s coordinator Cristiano Boccolini, one of the study's authors, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives of Brazilian children and teenagers requires the urgent adoption of intersectoral public policies to protect childhood. “Considering the health and economic crisis settled in the country, with the hunger returning, the increase in food insecurity, the growth of unemployment, the intensifying employment insecurity and the growing line for admission to social programs, it is urgent to mobilize society for the protection of childhood, with priority attention to this group of 40,830 children and teenagers who lost their mothers to COVID-19 in the first two years of the pandemic," says the Fiocruz Public Health researcher.

“Certainly the death of a parent, particularly the mother, is bounded to lifelong adverse outcomes and has serious consequences for the family's well-being, profoundly affecting the family structure and dynamics. Orphaned children are more vulnerable to emotional and behavioral problems, which requires intervention programs to mitigate the psychological consequences of orphanhood”, states Celia Landmann Szwarcwald, a researcher at the Information and Health Laboratory of the Institute of Scientific and Technological Communication and Information in Health (ICICT/Fiocruz).

https://portal.fiocruz.br/en/news/observatory-childrens-health-brazil-has-more-40000-covid-19-orphans