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New Scoliosis Brace that Grows With Patients Wins Dyson Award For Grad Student Who Wants to Make a Difference: Airy – 2022 James Dyson Award A University of Cincinnati grad student has invented an adjustable brace for young patients who need to reposition their curved spines, winning a prestigious award for her design genius. Impacting 7 million Americans every year, scoliosis is a curvature in the spine that often occurs before puberty. Despite the large number affected, advancements in braces that treat this medical condition have not changed since the late 1950s. Common braces are bulky, inflexible, and most importantly to teenagers, very noticeable which can deter many youths from wearing the device as often as they should. That’s why Sangyu Xi won the American James Dyson Award for creating a novel prototype called Airy, a breathable, comfortable, and adjustable brace that can accommodate a patient’s growth for up to three years. The exterior color of Airy can also be modified or padding can be removed to make it translucent, allowing young patients to wear the brace confidently. There also is an app paired with the brace also lets physicians communicate with patients in real-time on any adjustments to treatment plans. This brace can even be recycled up to ten times due to the absence of glue in its design. Since Airy’s creation, it has been tested on four teen patients at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, where feedback was extremely positive. Detailed insight into friction: How objects start to slide: The researchers dragged a sphere over a glass surface decorated with special fluorescent molecules. Credit: HIMS / UvA Chemists and physicists at the University of Amsterdam shed light on a crucial aspect of friction: how things begin to slide. Using fluorescence microscopy and dedicated fluorescent molecules, they are able to pinpoint how and when the friction at the contact between two objects is overcome and sliding starts to occur. These concepts were found through using a sphere marked with fluorescent molecules that light up when it touches a surface and even allowed the researchers to track the magnitude of the force as well. One of the key questions for the stability of many systems is how and when objects start to slide with respect to each other. For example, how an earthquake causes sliding between the ground and a building would be included in this. Basically, when this happens a contact area is formed by the many microscopic protrusions of the two interfaces that touch and interlock. Then shearing force is applied to the objects, causing them to slide along their surfaces, breaking the initial contact area. A protogalaxy in the Milky Way may be our galaxy’s original nucleus: A population of millions of stars near the center of the Milky Way (shown) is the original seed from which the galaxy grew, researchers say. The eight-star "teapot" in the constellation Sagittarius can be seen on the left. New data from the Gaia spacecraft has revealed the full extent of what seems to be the galaxy’s original nucleus, the ancient stellar population that the rest of the Milky Way grew around which came together more than 12.5 billion years ago. The Milky Way’s ancient heart is a round protogalaxy that spans nearly 18,000 light-years and possesses roughly 100 million times the mass of the sun in stars, or about 0.2 percent of the Milky Way’s current stellar mass. This was found in a study done by Walter Rix and colleagues through searching through the GAIA spacecraft database, sifting through 2 million stars within a broad region around the galaxy’s center, which lies in the constellation Sagittarius. The astronomers then examined how those stars move through space, retaining only the ones that don’t dart off into the vast halo of metal-poor stars engulfing the Milky Way’s disk. The end result: a sample of 18,000 ancient stars that represents the kernel around which the entire galaxy blossomed. By accounting for stars obscured by dust, Rix estimates that the protogalaxy is between 50 million and 200 million times as massive as the sun. Sources: New Scoliosis Brace that Grows With Patients Wins Dyson Award For Grad Student Who Wants to Make a Difference (goodnewsnetwork.org) Detailed insight into friction: How objects start to slide (phys.org) A protogalaxy in the Milky Way may be our galaxy’s original nucleus | Science News

Boy With Crippling ‘Suicide Disease’ Takes First Steps in a Year After Traveling to US for Pioneering Treatment: A young boy with a crippling condition that is so painful it’s dubbed the ‘suicide disease’ has taken his first steps almost a year after traveling across the pond for pioneering treatment in the USA. Dillon first started showing symptoms almost a year ago in November 2021, when he woke up with a limp and by the evening he was left debilitated by pain. Dillon Wilford was in so much pain from Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) that he even begged his mother Melanie to let him have his leg amputated. But after their family spent almost $20,000 to travel from the UK for specialized treatment, the 11-year-old became pain-free for the first time in months. Doctors in Houston, Texas, treated Dillon with a VECTTOR machine, which delivers a form of electro-stimulation to nerves to reduce pain. According to the company that created the machine, VECTTOTR stimulates the nerves in the body to produce neuropeptides that promote optimal body functions. This tends to decrease the stress overall on the body and in Dillon’s case made his pain almost nonexistent. Police Dog That Saved 38 Lives During 8-year Career is honored for Bravery–And Now Gets to Play on the Beach: PC Linda McBride with Luna – SWNS A police dog that saved 38 lives during an eight-year career has been honored at the Thin Blue Paw Awards gala last week. The heroic dog has saved many people through her job as a search and rescue dog for missing people. The 10-year-old German Shepherd retired in June and celebrated with her handler by going on her first-ever vacation, enjoying playtime on the beach, and swimming in the sea. Scottish police officer Linda McBride first partnered with Luna in December 2012 when the pup was just 12 weeks old and since then the duo has always looked out for each other. Based at Larbert in the Central Division of Police Scotland, the 55-year-old officer said the bond between the pair will never be broken. Luna lives with Linda and a pair of active police dogs including a German Shepherd and cocker spaniel as well as her 91-year-old mother who has a great relationship with all the dogs. Luna is an extraordinary dog and now she can be surrounded by family in a well-earned retirement. Mom Says Her Baby Boy’s Sight Was Saved by Message from a Stranger Who Spotted Abnormality on TikTok: – SWNS New mother Lily Fleet posted a cleverly edited video dressing her son Ari that happened to be spotted by optometrist Laura Brown. Noticing Ari’s left eye had a cloudy appearance and an outward squint during a short few seconds of the video, she messaged Fleet suggesting she get the eight-week-old checked out. The tests revealed he had congenital glaucoma, which required an urgent operation to open a tube in his eye so the fluid could drain out. Untreated, glaucoma can eventually lead to blindness. Fleet said she had noticed Ari’s eye wasn’t focusing properly and had been reassured it was fine by her doctor at his six-week checkup. Lily had been to the doctors already but had been turned away until she went armed with Brown’s advice. Now, the first-time mother is much happier that Ari now doesn’t have to worry about losing her eyesight. Sources: Boy With Crippling ‘Suicide Disease’ Takes First Steps in a Year After Traveling to US for Pioneering Treatment (goodnewsnetwork.org) Police Dog That Saved 38 Lives During 8-year Career is honored for Bravery–And Now Gets to Play on the Beach (goodnewsnetwork.org) Mom Says Her Baby Boy’s Sight Was Saved by Message from a Stranger Who Spotted Abnormality on TikTok (goodnewsnetwork.org)

Iranian state-organized marchers call for execution of protesters: A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by the Islamic republic's "morality police", in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022. WANA via REUTERS On Friday, several Iranian cities held state-organized rallies to counter nationwide anti-government unrest. The crowds condemned the anti-government protesters as "Israel's soldiers" and chanted "Offenders of the Koran must be executed." These marches followed a strong warning from authorities with the army saying it would confront "the enemies" behind the unrest, which may signal a crackdown on the protests. The anti-government unrest was caused by Mahsa Amini, a 22 year old woman, dying in police custody after being arrested for wearing clothing deemed “unsuitable.” State TV said 35 people had been killed in the unrest, but analysts find it unlikely to immediately threaten the clerical rulers of Iran. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in New York on Thursday and raised human rights issues, a United Nations spokesperson said. Italy elections: Who's who and how the vote works: Giorgia Meloni is seeking to form a right-wing government with two other parties | Getty Images As Italy approaches its elections, Giorgia Meloni's far-right Brothers of Italy party is leading the polls and looking to form a right-wing government. In the last general election four years ago, her party attracted roughly 4% of the vote, but now she's in position to win a possible quarter of the vote. Backed by two other parties, the League and Forza Italia, polls suggest Meloni will head a majority coalition in Italy's two houses of parliament. This owes to her being the only major party leader who refused to join popular technocrat Mario Draghi's broad-based coalition, leaving her as a strong opposition candidate after its collapse in July. Her alliance wants to renegotiate Italy's massive EU COVID-19 recovery plan and have Italy's president elected by popular vote, which will require a two-thirds majority vote by parliament. Her losing will require a big showing from the likely runner-up - the center-left Democratic Party (PD) of Enrico Letta. He hoped to form a rival alliance with smaller parties, but this suffered a blow when the centrist pro-European Azione (Action) party pulled out due to being unwilling to cooperate with two of his other partners, the Italian Left and Green Europe. The winning alliance will need to win a majority of Italians’ votes to hold both houses of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies and Senate. Separatists in Ukraine’s Donbas to hold votes on joining Russia: A military vehicle drives along a street with a billboard that reads: "With Russia forever, September 27", prior to a referendum in Luhansk, Luhansk People's Republic controlled by Russia-backed separatists, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022. (AP Photo/File) On Tuesday, the Russian state-news agency Tass reported that Russian-backed separatists in the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) and Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) will hold referendums from September 23-27 on joining Russia. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba responded by tweeting “Sham referendums will not change anything … Ukraine has every right to liberate its territories and will keep liberating them whatever Russia has to say.” This comes as Ukrainian forces are pushing Russian troops back eastern Ukraine. Officials in the Russian-controlled southern Kherson region on Tuesday also requested a referendum on joining Russia. In a post on Telegram, Volodymyr Saldo, the Russian-appointed head of Kherson, said he hoped the region would become “a part of Russia, a fully fledged subject of a united country,” Reuters reported. Sources: Iranian state-organised marchers call for execution of protesters | Reuters Italy elections: Who's who and how the vote works | BBC News Separatists in Ukraine’s Donbas to hold votes on joining Russia – POLITICO