Category: Science

HELSINKI — A young Chinese launch startup has reached orbit with its Gravity-1 all-solid launch vehicle, smashing the record for payload capacity for Chinese commercial rockets.

Orienspace’s Gravity-1 rocket lifted off from Defu-15002 mobile sea platform in the Yellow Sea at 12:30 a.m. Eastern (0530 UTC) Jan. 11. Ignition of the solid rocket motors produced large plumes of exhaust, with debris visibly falling into the sea as the rocket climbed into the sky. The firm confirmed launch success shortly after. 

The three satellites, Yunyao-1 (18-20), were later tracked by 478 by 499-kilometer orbits with inclinations of 49.99 degrees by U.S. Space Force space domain awareness.

The mission was the first launch for Orienspace which was founded in 2020. Gravity-1 consists of three stages and four boosters. It boasts the capability to lift around 6,500 kilograms of payload to low Earth orbit, or 3,700 kilograms to 700-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit, when using a kerosene-liquid oxygen third stage.

Orienspace is based in Shandong and has facilities in the province. The Haiyang sea launch facilities for today’s launch are also in Shandong. It secured a number of rounds of funding totalling more than $150 million. 

The Yunyao-1 satellites are for Tianjin-based Yunyao Yuhang which aims to construct a constellation to provide data for global weather forecasting. Services could include even short-term earthquake forecasting, according to its press statements. 

Changguang Satellite Technology (CGST), a commercial remote sensing satellite firm, manufactured the satellites. 

Orienspace CEO Yao Song, who first rose to fame in the semiconductor industry, stated previously that the firm has already secured orders for the launch of hundreds of satellites and been shortlisted in plans for a number of satellite constellations. Orienspace plans two further Gravity-1 launches for 2024.

The launch success is a notable moment in the Chinese commercial space sector. Gravity-1 is now the largest in the sector in terms of launch capacity. It is also the first to use boosters, one of a handful to reach orbit on the first attempt, and the first to have a debut launch from the sea.

Many commercial firms have opted to first develop light-lift solid rockets and move on to reusable liquid propellant rockets. Orienspace opted to proceed with a much more capable launcher as well as working on a larger kerosene-liquid oxygen launcher. 

Gravity-1 is capable of carrying more than twice that of the previous largest Chinese solid rockets, CAS Space’s Kinetica-1 and China Rocket’s Jielong-3 (1,500 to 500-km SSO). Both are spinoffs from state-owned enterprises. It is also more powerful than Europe’s Vega-C.

The solid rocket motors for Gravity-1 were provided by the Academy of Aerospace Solid Propulsion Technology (AASPT) under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC). This relationship allowed Orienspace to achieve orbit despite being founded in 2020. RSPACE, a rocket component startup with facilities in Shandong, also lists Orienspace as a customer.

China has been fostering a commercial space sector since late 2014. The government opened the industry to private capital and providing incentives, policy support and facilitating technology transfer through a military-civil fusion national strategy. 

The trend in Chinese commercial launch companies since 2020 has been to shift towards larger rockets. The shift came as potential revenue streams including the Guowang and G60 LEO broadband constellations and possible space station cargo missions have emerged. This has provided newer companies such as Orienspace and Space Pioneer with a clearer vision than earlier movers.

Last year firms Space Pioneer and Landspace reached orbit with the first Chinese commercial liquid propellant launchers. Tianlong-2 and Zhuque-2 are kerosene-lox and methane-lox launchers respectively. Both firms are now working on larger launchers for debut in mid-2024 (Tianlong-3) and 2025 (stainless steel Zhuque-3).

Orienspace is looking to launch its first liquid propellant rocket in 2025. The 60-meter-tall Gravity-2 will have a core stage and solid boosters. The rocket will use nine 100-ton-thrust Yuanli-85 gas generator kerosene engines for the first stage.

Previous statements gave a payload capacity of 15.5 tons to LEO, 10.9 to a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), or 5.8 tons to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). More recent capabilities are projected to be 25.6 tons to LEO, 19.1 tons to SSO and 7.7 tons to GTO.

Gravity-3 would be three Gravity-2 core stages in a Falcon Heavy-type arrangement. That is to be capable of lifting 30.6 tons of payload to LEO, 20.5 tons to SSO, 9.6 tons to GTO and 8 tons to lunar transfer orbit.

The Gravity-1 mission was the fourth Chinese orbital launch of 2024. It followed shortly after a Kuaizhou-1A solid rocket launch Jan. 11 (UTC) and the Jan. 9 launch of the Einstein Probe.

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Compounds from soy and other plant sources could protect against breast cancer recurrence or affect survival, researchers report.

Compounds called isoflavones are among the plant-derived compounds that may significantly reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence or death, according to the new meta-analysis.

Investigators in Australia, Denmark, England, Norway, and the US reviewed 22 published observational studies that examined the impact of dietary intake of soybeans, lignans (compounds found in a variety of plants including seeds and nuts), cruciferous/cabbage-family vegetables, and green tea—and these substances’ phytonutrients (natural compounds derived from plants)—on breast cancer recurrence and mortality, as well as on mortality from all causes.

This included 11 studies of soy isoflavones, three of cruciferous vegetables, two of green tea, three of lignans, and three of enterolactone, which is formed in the gut when lignans are digested.

Soy isoflavones were associated with a 26% reduced risk of breast cancer recurrence, according to a meta-analysis that included six of the studies (of 11,837 women) reviewed by investigators. The results were most notable among post-menopausal survivors.

The greatest risk reduction was seen at 60 milligrams per day. This is equivalent to two to three servings per day, where one serving equates to a cup of soy milk, three ounces of tofu, or a half-cup of cooked soybeans. However, the effect of soy consumption on risk of mortality was smaller (12%) and not statistically significant, and was seen mostly at 20-40 mg per day, or one to two servings.

Another finding, reported for the first time in a meta-analysis, relates to enterolactone, a compound metabolized from lignans. Lignans are found in a wide variety of plants, such as seeds, nuts, legumes, whole grains, fruit, and vegetables. High levels are found in flaxseeds, cashew nuts, broccoli, and brussels sprouts, among other sources.

Enterolactone was found to reduce the risk of breast cancer-specific mortality by 28% and death from any cause by 31%, particularly in post-menopausal women (35% reduction in death from any cause). It is not possible to calculate the effective dose of lignans in the diet from these enterolactone findings, because the gut microbiome that plays a role in metabolism of lignans varies among individuals.

“These findings were graded probable, which means there is strong research showing that they contributed to the results we are seeing,” says lead author Diana van Die of NICM Health Research Institute at Western Sydney University, Australia.

The review also found some suggestive results, which means the results are generally consistent but rarely strong enough to justify recommendations:

• Consumption of green tea suggests an effect of reducing the risk of breast cancer recurrence by 44% in women with stage I or II breast cancer. The greatest effect was seen from consuming three to five cups per day and from five or more cups per day, as documented in two Japanese studies.
• Among those who consumed lignans prior to breast cancer diagnosis, there was a non-significant 34% risk reduction in cancer-specific mortality and 19% reduction in all causes of death in post-menopausal women. However, consumption of lignans by pre-menopausal women suggests an increased risk of mortality. This result indicates that the effects of lignans are dependent on the hormonal environment, although it was likely driven by one large study and needs further investigation. The highest intake was nine or more servings per day in the studies reviewed.
• The impact of cruciferous vegetables was inconclusive, possibly influenced by the average intake being quite low (less than a half-cup per day) in the studies reviewed.

Investigators also looked into whether consuming soy, lignans, cruciferous vegetables, and green tea, or their phytonutrients in the diet before or after breast cancer diagnosis made a difference. However, the data did not provide a concrete answer. All studies on green tea and lignans measured pre-diagnosis intake, while soy results came from studies that measured intake before and after diagnosis.

“It is critically important to stress that these studies were conducted on women who received medical and/or surgical treatment for breast cancer, and that these foods and phytonutrients should not be considered as alternatives to treatment,” says senior author Channing Paller, director of prostate cancer clinical research and an associate professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins University.

“This research highlights the need for more robust studies in this area looking at the most effective dosages of these compounds, and whether starting to consume them after diagnosis has the same effect as a lifelong dietary habit before diagnosis. This is what patients are looking for,” Paller adds.

The research appears in the journal JNCI Cancer Spectrum.

Additional coauthors are from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, Integria (MediHerb) in Australia, the Danish Cancer Institute, Imperial College London, Oslo New University College, and The Cancer Registry of Norway.

Source: Johns Hopkins University

A new discovery from a team of astronomers provides a significant clue to star formation.

The mystery of star formation in galaxies continues to intrigue astronomers worldwide. Yet a key question remains just how and why and where do stars form in the universe?

Led by Jin Koda, professor in the physics and astronomy department at Stony Brook University, the research team used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and investigated the far edge of the spiral galaxy M83, at a distance of 15 million light years from Earth. They uncovered 23 concentrations of dense molecular gas called “molecular clouds,” which are evidence of the birthing region of stars.

Molecular clouds are a typical site for star formation in the inner parts of galaxies. When it comes to the far edges of many galaxies, scientists had yet to understand how and why stars form because they could not pinpoint their formation sites. Yet, a surprising number of very young stars are known to exist at the far edges of many galaxies. The discovered 23 molecular clouds appear different from their counterparts in typical star-forming sites in galaxies. The large bodies of these clouds were not visible like “normal” molecular clouds—only their star-forming dense cores, the “hearts” of the clouds, were observed.

This new research finding opens the door to a better understanding of the process of star formation in the universe in general.

Additionally, the molecular cloud discovery uncovered a key link to the large reservoir of the diffuse atomic gas within the clouds. Normally, the atomic gas condenses into dense molecular clouds, where even denser cores develop and form stars. This process of conversion from atomic to molecular gas occurs even at the galaxy edges, but the conversion turned out to be very inefficient.

“The star formation at galaxy edges have been a nagging mystery since their discovery by the NASA’s GALEX satellite 18 years ago,” says Koda, lead researcher. “Astronomers are eager to understand how stars form, and our discovery provides a clue to star formation processes.”

Koda and coauthors write that “these molecular clouds are likely the main drivers of the star formation activity in galaxy edges.” They further explain: “We hypothesized that these clouds share, on average, the same common structure (mass distribution) as molecular clouds in the Milky Way, such as Orion, and have star-forming dense cores embedded in thick layers of bulk molecular gas. However, their envelopes are invisible.”

Amanda Lee, who was an undergraduate student on Koda’s research team at Stony Brook University, processed telescopic data from the GBT and VLA for these findings. Through this, she discovered the atomic gas reservoir at the galaxy edge.

“We still do not understand why this atomic gas does not efficiently become dense molecular clouds and form stars,” adds Lee, who is now pursuing her PhD in astronomy at University of Massachusetts Amherst. “As often is the case in astronomy, pursuing answers to one mystery can often lead to another. That’s why research in astronomy is exciting.”

Koda and colleagues presented their findings at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in New Orleans on January 8. The AAS presentation includes a confirmation of the hypothesis presented in a 2022 paper published in The Astrophysical Journal , along with new findings by way of the Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and Green Bank Telescope (GBT).

Koda and colleagues came to their conclusions by using data collected using several instruments from the National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), including the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Karl G. Jansky VLA, and the GBT, as well as with the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan’s (NAOJ) Subaru Telescope and the NASA Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX).

The research that led to team’s findings was supported in part by the National Science Foundation and by NASA.

Source: Stony Brook University

NEW ORLEANS — D-Orbit, an Italian company that provides space transportation services, has raised 100 million euros ($110 million) in a Series C round to expand into satellite servicing and other applications.

The company announced Jan. 11 a first closing of a Series C round, led by Japanese company Marubeni Corporation. Also participating in the round is Avantgarde, a family office, along with venture funds CDP Venture Capital Sgr, Seraphim Space Investment Trust, United Ventures, Indaco Venture Partners, Neva SGR Spa and Primo Ventures.

D-Orbit said it expects to bring on additional investors in a second closing of the Series C round later in the first half of the year.

D-Orbit currently provides in-space transportation services using its ION series of orbital transfer vehicles. Those tugs have launched primarily on SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets, such as the Transporter line of rideshare missions. The most recent ION, the 13^th overall, was a secondary payload on the Falcon 9 launch of a South Korean reconnaissance satellite Dec. 1.

“This milestone marks a seismic leap in the evolution of D-Orbit,” Luca Rossettini, chief executive of D-Orbit, said in statement about the funding round. The funding, he said, is “solidifying our commitment to revolutionize the space logistics industry.”

D-Orbit plans to use the funding to expand it capabilities from in-space transportation into space cloud computing and servicing. The funding will also go towards enhancing its “operational capabilities” in Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The company announced plans nearly two years ago to go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition copmany (SPAC) called Breeze Holdings. D-Orbit at the time expected to raise $185 million and value the company at $1.28 billion.

However, in August 2022, D-Orbit and Breeze Holdings called off the merger, with the SPAC citing “substantially” changed markets since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Interest in SPACs, both in the space industry and the overall market, has also cooled significantly in that time.

As part of the SPAC, D-Orbit disclosed revenues of $3.4 million in 2021. In the announcement of the Series C round, the company said it has seen “triple digit yearly revenue growth” since then, but did not disclose specifics. D-Orbit added that the new funding takes it to cash flow profitability.

D-Orbit has been working since calling off the SPAC merger on raising a private funding round. The company announced Nov. 9 that it had lined up Marubeni to be the lead investor in the Series C round. Besides the funding, Marubeni said it would help D-Orbit with business in Japan and Southeast Asia.

Other investors said they saw the potential for D-Orbit to expand beyond in-space transportation. “The growth and potential of the space sector, for example, can only be achieved thanks to companies like D-Orbit developing sustainable in-space servicing and transportation,” said James Bruegger, managing partner and chief investment officer at Seraphim Space, in a statement. “This announcement represents a significant milestone in helping to finance the next stage of the company’s growth strategy.”

Among the new services D-Orbit is considering, according to its funding announcement, is satellite life extension and debris removal. That returns the company to some of its original plans.

“Space debris: it’s a big problem. Investors understand problems. If you have a solution, then there is a business,” Rossettini recalled during a panel at the Italian Space Days event at the Italian Embassy in Washington Dec. 14. “How much money did I raise for space debris? Zero, because no one is paying to remove space debris.”

That led him to pursue other markets, including in-space transportation. “You need to have a vision, but you need to show, step by step, how you get there.”

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Astronomers have captured the first close-up images of a massive star known as RW Cephei that recently experienced a strange fading event.

The images are providing new clues about what’s happening around the massive star approximately 16,000 light years from Earth.

Detailed images and observations along with intelligent algorithms suggest a grand eruption that launched a gas cloud from RW Cephei, blocking a large fraction of starlight from view.

Scientists were surprised last year by the fading of the enormous star, which is an example of a “cool hypergiant,” a star that has grown to huge dimensions as it approaches the end of its life. RW Cephei is so large that if it were placed at the Sun’s location, its outer layers would reach beyond the orbit of Jupiter.

“We made our first CHARA observations in December 2022, just before the winter weather closure, but the results were so remarkable we decided to pursue additional observations once the star was accessible again,” says Narsireddy Anugu, an astronomer at Georgia State University who led an international team of scientists in a quest to make the first close-up pictures of RW Cephei to determine the source of the fading.

Old stars display light variations that are related to changes in their outer layers. The changes are usually small, so scientists were amazed when astronomers Wolfgang Vollmann and Costantino Sigismondi announced in 2022 that RW Cephei had experienced dramatic fading over the previous few years.

By December 2022, RW Cephei had faded to about one third of its normal brightness, an unprecedented drop. Scientists wanted to figure out what was causing this great dimming.

Despite its huge size, RW Cephei is so far away that it appears as a pinpoint even using the largest of conventional telescopes. To see the star close up required the remarkable abilities of the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) Array telescopes.

The CHARA Array is a six-telescope facility located at the historic Mount Wilson Observatory in California. The telescopes are placed across the mountaintop to act together like one enormous telescope. The combination of their light beams gives the CHARA Array the ability to see details on very tiny objects in the sky, about 30 times smaller than the largest conventional telescopes, and smaller than a human on the moon as seen from Earth.

The CHARA observations showed that the star did not appear round, as expected, but to make a picture with full details required specialized computer programs created by Fabien Baron, associate professor of astronomy.

“The spacing of the CHARA telescopes induces a level of uncertainty in the exact details of the pictures, so we need intelligent algorithms to recover the whole image,” Baron says.

The final pictures show a star convulsed by motions in its outer layers that create fainter and brighter patches across its surface. Furthermore, the appearance changed significantly over the 10-month period of observations that coincided with the transition from its faintest state to a slow recovery toward its former brightness.

The final piece of the puzzle came from additional observations of RW Cephei that were made by Georgia State University graduate student Katherine Shepard at the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico.

Shepard used a special camera to record the light from RW Cephei from the visible to the infrared, and these measurements showed that the fading was much larger in the visible colors compared to the infrared. This is a tell-tale sign that the starlight was obscured by microscopic dust clouds blocking our view.

Taken together, the observations suggest that RW Cephei experienced a huge eruption that launched a vast cloud of gas. As the cloud moved away, it cooled and created swarms of dust particles that effectively blocked a large fraction of starlight. Now, as the cloud expands away, we are beginning to see the star again and its troubled surroundings.

CHARA Director Douglas Gies thinks that this may be one of several grand eruptions that have wracked RW Cephei over the last century and that such eruptions will continue to play a role in mass loss before the star’s demise.

“This one was special because the cloud was ejected in the direction of Earth, so we were in the right place to witness the full effects of the cataclysm,” Gies says.

The National Science Foundation supports the CHARA Array.

The research is published in The Astronomical Journal. The researchers presented the new findings at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans.

Source: Georgia State

People with post-traumatic stress disorder have a cerebellum about 2% smaller than unaffected adults, according to new research.

The cerebellum, a part of the brain well known for helping to coordinate movement and balance, can influence emotion and memory, which post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affects.

What isn’t known yet is whether a smaller cerebellum predisposes a person to PTSD or PTSD shrinks the brain region.

“The differences were largely within the posterior lobe, where a lot of the more cognitive functions attributed to the cerebellum seem to localize, as well as the vermis, which is linked to a lot of emotional processing functions,” says study lead author Ashley Huggins, who helped carry out the work as a postdoctoral researcher at Duke University in the lab of psychiatrist Raj Morey.

Huggins, now an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Arizona, hopes these results encourage others to consider the cerebellum as an important medical target for those with PTSD.

“If we know what areas are implicated, then we can start to focus interventions like brain stimulation on the cerebellum and potentially improve treatment outcomes,” Huggins says.

The findings, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, have prompted Huggins and her lab to start looking for what comes first: a smaller cerebellum that might make people more susceptible to PTSD, or trauma-induced PTSD that leads to cerebellum shrinkage.

The ‘little brain’ and PTSD

PTSD is a mental health disorder brought about by experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event, such as a car accident, sexual abuse, or military combat.

Though most people who endure a traumatic experience are spared from the disorder, about 6% of adults develop PTSD, which is often marked by increased fear and reliving the traumatizing event.

Researchers have found several brain regions involved in PTSD, including the almond-shaped amygdala that regulates fear, and the hippocampus, a critical hub for processing memories and routing them throughout the brain.

The cerebellum (Latin for “little brain”), by contrast, has received less attention for its role in PTSD.

A grapefruit-sized lump of cells that look like it was clumsily tacked underneath the back of the brain as an afterthought, the cerebellum is best known for its role in coordinating balance and choreographing complex movements, like walking or dancing. But there is much more to it than that.

“It’s a really complex area,” Huggins says. “If you look at how densely populated with neurons it is relative to the rest of the brain, it’s not that surprising that it does a lot more than balance and movement.”

Dense may be an understatement. The cerebellum makes up just 10% of the brain’s total volume but packs in more than half of the brain’s 86 billion nerve cells.

Researchers have recently observed changes to the size of the tightly-packed cerebellum in PTSD. Most of that research, however, is limited by either a small dataset (fewer than 100 participants), broad anatomical boundaries, or a sole focus on certain patient populations, such as veterans or sexual assault victims with PTSD.

PTSD severity

To overcome those limitations, Morey and colleagues pooled together their brain imaging scans to study PTSD as broadly and universally as possible. The group ended up with images from 4,215 adult MRI scans, about a third of whom had been diagnosed with PTSD.

“I spent a lot of time looking at cerebellums,” Huggins says.

Even with automated software to analyze the thousands of brain scans, Huggins manually spot-checked every image to make sure the boundaries drawn around the cerebellum and its many subregions were accurate.

The result of this thorough methodology was a fairly simple and consistent finding: PTSD patients had cerebellums about 2% smaller.

When Huggins zoomed in to specific areas within the cerebellum that influence emotion and memory, she found similar cerebellar reductions in people with PTSD. She also discovered that the worse PTSD was for a person, the smaller their cerebellum was.

“Focusing purely on a yes-or-no categorical diagnosis doesn’t always give us the clearest picture,” Huggins says. “When we looked at PTSD severity, people who had more severe forms of the disorder had an even smaller cerebellar volume.”

Looking ahead

The results are an important first step at looking at how and where PTSD affects the brain.

There are more than 600,000 combinations of symptoms that can lead to a PTSD diagnosis, Huggins explains. Figuring out if different PTSD symptom combinations have different impacts on the brain will also be important to keep in mind.

For now, though, Huggins hopes this work helps others recognize the cerebellum as an important driver of complex behavior and processes beyond gait and balance, as well as a potential target for new and current treatments for people with PTSD.

“While there are good treatments that work for people with PTSD, we know they don’t work for everyone,” Huggins says. “If we can better understand what’s going on in the brain, then we can try to incorporate that information to come up with more effective treatments that are longer lasting and work for more people.”

Source: Duke University

Microglia, the immune cells of the brain, wither away as Alzheimer’s disease takes hold in both mice and humans, and APOE4, a key gene variant implicated in Alzheimer’s, may mediate these changes, according to new research.

Mice reach the twilight of their lives at around age two, the rough equivalent of 80 in human years. And when researchers introduce specific mutations into mice and then age them up, the mice can grow forgetful and irritable—eventually exhibiting signs of Alzheimer’s disease not unlike that of many elderly humans.

“Older mice, and those with the APOE4 variant, have these exhausted, fatigued immune cells in their brains, and we discovered a similar phenomenon in human datasets,” says Sohail Tavazoie, a professor at Rockefeller University.

The team dubbed this new class of exhausted cells TIM, for terminally inflammatory microglia. TIM have lost the ability to efficiently remove plaque from the brain and thus may contribute to Alzheimer’s.

The study also sheds light on how the Alzheimer’s drug aducanumab may be interacting with immune cells in the brain.

“When mice with the APOE4 variant were treated with aducanumab, we found that their TIM regain some functionality,” says Alon Millet, a graduate fellow in the Tavazoie lab.

Humans carry one of three variants of the APOE gene: APOE2, APOE3, and APOE4. Prior work from the Tavazoie lab has demonstrated that these variants can play pivotal roles in how the body responds to diseases from cancer to COVID, but the link between Alzheimer’s disease and APOE4 is particularly well-established: the APOE4 variant, carried by about 20% of the population, is considered one of the strongest genetic risk factors for Alzheimer’s.

Tavazoie, Millet, and Jose Ledo (now a faculty member at Medical University of South Carolina) spent four years developing Alzheimer’s disease mouse models that express human APOE variants and then aging them up to get a better idea of how APOE4 influences their brains as Alzheimer’s takes hold.

“Generating these mice systematically was a major undertaking,” Tavazoie says. “It was an ongoing project made possible by Jose’s and Alon’s specific expertise coming together.”

The team then built a single-cell atlas of brain immune cells in these mice and identified a population of microglia riddled with signs of stress and inflammation that had not been described previously.

The brains of mice with APOE4 were overrun by TIM, while other variants had comparatively fewer TIM. And once they knew what to look for, the team also began finding TIM in human brain tissue donated by patients who had the APOE4 variant. The results suggest that APOE4 may increase the risk of Alzheimer’s by wearing down the brain’s immune cells.

The researchers also found that treating mice with the recently approved Alzheimer’s drug aducanumab improved their condition and rehabilitated damaged TIM. Interestingly, the effects of the drug were far more pronounced in mice with APOE4. And while such preliminary findings cannot be translated immediately to the clinic, “this may be a first hint that aducanumab works differently with different genotypes,” Millet says. “It’s something that clinicians should look into.”

Some researchers suspect that a healthy immune system clears plaque before it accumulates in the brain, and that Alzheimer’s is what happens when that system fails, and plaque piles up. According to this theory, rehabilitating microglia too tired to do their jobs may give the brain the boost it needs to protect itself. If so, TIM would be a promising therapeutic target.

“TIM marinate in this inflammatory milieu for years, until they’re no longer able to cope,” Millet says. “If we can revert them back to a healthy state, perhaps the immune system would be able to keep Alzheimer’s in check.”

On that front, the team will now be exploring the signaling molecules that lead to TIM formation, with an eye toward contributing to the development of drugs that interfere with the process, keep microglia healthy, and reduce cognitive decline. In the long-term, this could lead to a novel Alzheimer’s therapy.

The team will also be investigating whether TIM exist in other diseases. Millet suspects that, although TIM may have escaped notice until now, these exhausted immune cells may also be involved in other diseases of the brain, from tumors to Parkinson’s. “Inflammation causes TIM to accumulate, so perhaps what we’re seeing isn’t specific to Alzheimer’s,” he says.

“Most microglia could end up as TIMs, if we give them enough time.”

Source: Rockefeller University

Why is it so hard to set—and keep—New Year’s resolutions?

When the calendar flips from December to January, it’s common to pick a handful of New Year’s resolutions. While many set goals, only 9% of people manage to keep their resolutions throughout the year.

When people give up on their resolutions, they might think it’s because they lack discipline. But what if it had nothing to do with you?

The key to keeping your New Year’s resolutions, according to University of Rochester experts, is to set “SMARTER” goals.

UR Medicine registered nurse and certified health and wellness coach Ging Hoang shares how:

Why are resolutions so hard to keep?

New Year’s resolutions tend to fail because typically people set out with too big of a resolution, says Hoang. If the goal is unrealistic, it can set you up for failure before you’ve even begun.

Why does goal setting matter?

In a world that equates success with productivity, many people pack their days with responsibilities. We can easily form habits that don’t take too much energy, allowing the subconscious to take over. When schedules are jam-packed, it’s easy to lean on “automatic behaviors,” says Hoang. “By setting goals, we can shift some of those automatic behaviors, things that we do without thinking, that we may want to change. If you want to start drinking water in the mornings, you’ll have to modify your routine. To make it easier, try filling up a glass at night and placing it next to your coffee maker.”

What’s the best way to set a New Year’s resolution?

To set realistic resolutions for 2024, think of it as if you’re setting a goal for the day. Just like we wake up in the morning and look at what’s ahead of us, try breaking the year down in chunks.

You might ask yourself, what do you want to accomplish in January? Or, what project do you want to have completed by the time summer starts?

Tracking progress is also essential to good goal-setting. Set reminders for yourself on your calendar or your phone and take time to reflect on—and celebrate!— how you’re doing.

What are ‘SMARTER’ goals?

Using the acronym “SMARTER” to set your goals can help keep your New Year’s resolutions both valuable and realistic. By making each goal specific and clarifying the way you’ll measure its success, you’re more likely to follow through with the change.

“SMARTER” goals are:

• S: Specific
• M: Measurable or meaningful
• A: Attainable/achievable
• R: Realistic/relevant
• T: Time-bound
• E: Evaluated
• R: Revised

For example, if your New Year’s resolution is to manage your stress better, here’s how you’d structure your SMARTER goal:

Specific: I will manage my stress by practicing meditation using a tool such as the Calm App.

Measurable or meaningful: I will meditate once a week on Sundays using the Calm App for at least three minutes. Meditating is something I find value in as it helps to manage my stress.

Attainable/achievable: Using the Calm App is easy because I can pull it up on my phone quickly. Meditating once a week is a reasonable amount given my schedule.

Realistic/relevant: I feel confident that I can keep up with this meditation plan because it is only once a week and for a short amount of time. It is relevant to my goal of managing stress.

Time bound: I will meditate every Sunday for the month of January.

Evaluate: At the end of January, I will reflect on my progress.

Revise: If I find that I can’t commit to this goal, I will change it and try a different plan in February.

Whether your New Year’s resolutions are health-centered, focused on changing lifestyle habits, or something beyond, following the SMARTER guide is a great first step.

And don’t forget to take it easy on yourself throughout the process. Hoang says, “It’s important to understand that setting goals and making life changes takes time, patience, and self-compassion.”

Source: University of Rochester

Poverty has fallen by 27 percentage points since 1980, according to new research.

This change is in sharp contrast with official US Census Bureau numbers indicating that poverty has fallen a mere 1.5 percentage points in that time.

Using consumption poverty instead of income poverty as their measurement tool, the researchers found that poverty rates declined steadily between 2020 and 2022, a period when income-based poverty fluctuated noticeably.

These findings were recently released in the Annual Report on U.S. Consumption Poverty: 2022.

Using data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Expenditure Survey and the US Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, the researchers challenge common misconceptions created by the official government poverty data. According to the researchers, consumption, which measures what families are able to purchase in terms of food, housing, transportation, and other goods and services, offers a better indicator of economic well-being than income, which can fluctuate for reasons unrelated to well-being.

Between 1980 and 2022, consumption poverty fell from 33.8% to 6.0%, even though the official poverty rate indicated a drop by only 1.5 percentage points over that same period.

The researchers identified three key factors contributing to the disparity between consumption and official poverty metrics: flawed adjustments to the federal poverty line to account for inflation, reliance on a narrow definition of income, and biased measures of family resources.

“Our poverty estimates, based on how much people consume, are a much stronger indicator of well-being for the most vulnerable than those based on income,” explains James Sullivan, professor of economics and director of the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO) at the University of Notre Dame. “Government surveys miss many income sources that are important to those struggling to make ends meet, and income varies for many reasons that are unrelated to well-being.”

The researchers’ report further disputes the notion of a sharp decline in poverty in 2021 followed by a substantial rise in 2022. Consumption poverty patterns did not exhibit such fluctuations. Instead, consumption poverty declined steadily during recent years while income poverty fluctuated dramatically, the coauthors note, reiterating that the patterns for income poverty overstate changes in economic well-being.

“Annual income will not reflect the standard of living of individuals who smooth consumption by drawing upon savings or by borrowing,” the researchers say. “This distinction is particularly relevant when income is fluctuating significantly, as was the case for families with few resources during the pandemic due to sharp changes in employment and sporadic cash transfers.”

“There is evidence that families saved more in 2021 in response to the third round of the temporary stimulus payments and the expanded child tax credit,” Sullivan explains, “which resulted in a more stable pattern in consumption poverty.”

In addition, while many pundits have argued that the 2021 fall and 2022 rise in income poverty is largely due to the child tax credit, the researchers’ findings show that other factors explain much of this pattern.

“While the child tax credit played an important role, the primary reason income poverty was sharply lower in 2021 than in the preceding and following year was because of the economic impact payments (or stimulus payments) paid out in 2021,” Sullivan says.

Using their consumption-based measures, the coauthors found that over the past six decades poverty in America was reduced not only through tax rate cuts and tax credits, but by the expansion of other anti-poverty programs as well. Increases in Social Security benefits have helped, as has the impact on earnings due to greater educational attainment. Overall economic growth in the country has also played an important role in the sharp decline in poverty, the researchers conclude.

The researchers release updated consumption-based poverty reports annually to coincide with the Census Bureau’s report, offering the latest, closest-to-real-time data. Explore these reports, along with poverty rates, visualization tools, and additional resources, at povertymeasurement.org.

Additional coauthors of the research are from the University of Chicago and Baylor University.

Source: University of Notre Dame