In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Captain Picard and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise leverage the holodeck, an empty room capable of generating 3D environments, to prepare for missions and to entertain themselves, simulating everything from lush jungles to the London of Sherlock Holmes. Deeply immersive and fully interactive, holodeck-created environments are infinitely customizable, using nothing but language: the crew has only to ask the computer to generate an environment, and that space appears in the holodeck. Today, virtual interactive environments are also used to train robots prior to real-world deployment in a ...

Salt marsh restoration can mitigate flood risk and bolster community resilience to climate change in our local waterways, according to a recent study published in Nature by a postdoctoral fellow with UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Coastal Climate Resilience (CCCR).  The study, titled “The value of marsh restoration for flood risk reduction in an urban estuary,” explores the social and economic advantages of marsh restoration amidst the growing threats of sea level rise and storm-driven flooding. Climate change will put many communities at risk. In California, some of the study co-authors from the U.S. Geological ...

In recent years, cancer immunotherapy, exemplified by PD-1 and its ligand PD-L1 blockade, has made remarkable advances. But while immunotherapy drugs offer new treatment possibilities, only about 20% to 40% of patients respond to these treatments. The majority either don't respond or develop drug resistance. Researchers are now looking for ways to enhance the scope of tumor immunotherapy in order to benefit a wider range of patients.  One such avenue is through the protein tyrosine phosphatase non-receptor type 2 (PTPN2) and its close superfamily member, PTPN1, identified in previous research as crucial modulators involved in the regulation ...

A new study in JAMA Network Open led by researchers from the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy observed 28,322 park users across 54 neighborhood parks and found a clear association between park renovation and park use in low-income neighborhoods in New York City (NYC). As the global trend toward urbanization continues, two thirds of the world’s population is predicted to live in cities by 2050. Amid the noise, stress, and crowding of city life, urban parks have the potential to provide opportunities for physical activity, mitigate heat and pollution, lower stress, and improve mental and social well-being, all of which can decrease the prevalence ...

Adding one simple rule to an idealized game of billiards leads to a wealth of intriguing mathematical questions, as well as applications in the physics of living organisms. This week, researchers from the University of Amsterdam, including two master students as first authors – have published a paper in Physical Review Letters about the fascinating dynamics of billiards with memory. Billiards: a mathematical mystery An idealized version of the game of billiards has fascinated mathematicians for decades. The basic ...

While there’s no regulation in the U.S. for what’s in organic shampoos, they tend to contain ingredients perceived as safe or environmentally friendly. However, these “clean” shampoos separate and spoil faster than those made with synthetic stabilizers and preservatives. Now, researchers in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering demonstrate that a simple process — spinning organic shampoo at high speeds — improved the final products’ shelf lives and ability to clean hair. Natural emulsifiers, such as xanthan gum and cetyl alcohol, ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Left unchecked, corrosion can rust out cars and pipes, take down buildings and bridges, and eat away at our monuments. Corrosion can also damage devices that could be key to a clean energy future. And now, Duke University researchers have captured extreme close-ups of that process in action. “By studying how and why renewable energy devices break down over time, we might be able to extend their lifetime,” said chemistry professor and senior author Ivan Moreno-Hernandez. In his lab at Duke sits a miniature version of one such device. Called an electrolyzer, ...

The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) has announced that the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville (SOMG) and Loma Linda University School of Medicine (LLUSM) are the first to earn the highest recognition of a “Platinum Plus” certification designation for the significant level of undergraduate lifestyle medicine curricula within their programs. The Platinum Plus is the highest tier of certification that a medical school can receive from ACLM and indicates the incorporation of at least 100 hours of evidence-based lifestyle medicine content within the curriculum. This level of lifestyle medicine ...

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, today named Avi Wigderson as recipient of the 2023 ACM A.M. Turing Award for foundational contributions to the theory of computation, including reshaping our understanding of the role of randomness in computation, and for his decades of intellectual leadership in theoretical computer science. Wigderson is the Herbert H. Maass Professor in the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He has been a leading figure in areas including computational complexity theory, algorithms and optimization, randomness and cryptography, parallel and distributed computation, combinatorics, and graph theory, as well as ...

– By Lauren Core The National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI), which is led by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), has been extended for five more years with $75 million in funding from DOE. NAWI will continue its contributions to helping decarbonize the water and wastewater sectors through investments in technologies that enhance the efficient use of energy for water use, treatment, and distribution.   “Water and energy are interdependent – water is used to produce nearly every major energy source, and ...

Systems Biology Ireland (SBI) at University College Dublin (UCD) and The Quantitative Biosciences Institute (QBI) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and) have announced the 2024 winners of the joint Research Fellowship Awards (RFAs).  The Research Fellowship Awards aim to support collaborative high quality and ground -breaking research proposals from QBI-UCSF and UCD in the areas of network biology and drug/drug target discovery.  The winning projects for 2024 are:  “Overcoming Resistance to HER2-Targeted Therapies in Breast Cancer,” ...

Laura Soucek, an ICREA Research Professor, Director of VHIO’s Experimental Therapeutics Program,  and Head of our Models of Cancer Therapies Group, has received a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant to maximize the use of the first clinically viable MYC inhibitor. This ERC funding program is amongst the EU’s most prestigious and competitive, providing leading senior researchers with the opportunity to pursue ambitious, curiosity-driven projects that could lead to major scientific breakthroughs. The new grants, worth in total nearly €652 million, are part of the EU’s Horizon Europe programme. ...

A drug approved to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension may be effective at managing hypertension and end-organ damage in patients with sickle cell disease, according to a new study published in Lancet Haematology. An early phase randomized clinical trial involving 130 patients with sickle cell disease found that the drug, called riociguat, was found to be safe to use and well tolerated in these patients and significantly improved their blood pressure. Preliminary efficacy data suggested the medication might improve heart function. An estimated 100,000 Americans ...

B-Cubed’s Hackathon – “Hacking Biodiversity Data Cubes for Policy” – concluded successfully on 5 April in Brussels. The event marked a significant milestone in the use of data cubes for enhancing biodiversity data analysis and policy-making. Over four days, participants from diverse backgrounds collaborated to explore innovative solutions aimed at standardising and improving the accessibility of biodiversity data. The event began with a foundational presentation on data cubes by Andrew Rodrigues ...

Rutgers Health researchers have found that hypertensive disorders in pregnancy are strongly associated with fatal cardiovascular disease for up to a year after birth. Among the hypertensive disorders that cause dangerously high blood pressure during pregnancy — chronic hypertension, gestational hypertension, preeclampsia without severe features, preeclampsia with severe features, superimposed preeclampsia and eclampsia — all but gestational diabetes were associated with a doubling in the risk of fatal cardiovascular disease compared to women with normal blood pressure. Eclampsia, a condition whereby hypertensive ...

Severe sepsis from bacterial or viral infections can be life-threatening and even people recovering from severe sepsis may experience long-lasting effects on the immune system, making them more susceptible to recurrent infections. The causes for this sepsis-induced immune suppression are not well understood and lack an effective treatment. To better understand the cause, Katherine MacNamara and colleagues from Albany Medical College, USA, analyzed the blood stem cells of mice with prior sepsis and their results were recently published in the journal Stem Cell Reports. During ...

Concurrent occurrences of heatwaves and extreme short-term sea level rises at the same coastal locations significantly increased between 1998 and 2017 when compared to the preceding twenty years, reports a study published in Communications Earth & Environment. The study also suggests that these events may be five times more likely to occur between 2025 and 2049 under a modelled high emissions scenario. A so-called ‘concurrent heatwave and extreme sea level’ (CHWESL) event is when a heatwave and an extreme short-term sea level rise occur at the same coastal location over the same time period. Although they ...

About The Study: The results of this study suggest that young breast cancer survivors without a germline pathogenic variant have a low risk of developing a second primary breast cancer in the first 10 years after diagnosis. Findings from germline genetic testing may inform treatment decision-making and follow-up care considerations in this population.  Authors: Kristen D. Brantley, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, is the corresponding author.  To access ...

About The Study: In this study that included 1,470 adults with chronic low back pain, physician empathy was associated with better outcomes over 12 months. Greater efforts to cultivate and improve physician empathy appear warranted.  Authors: John C. Licciardone, D.O., M.S., M.B.A., of the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.6026) Editor’s ...

Parasites thought only to infect tropical coral reefs have been discovered in a large variety of creatures in cold marine ecosystems along the Northeast Pacific, according to new research from University of British Columbia botanists. The finding, published today in Current Biology, greatly expands the range of corallicolids, suggesting the parasites infect a range of organisms related to coral, like sea anemones and other cold-water marine invertebrates, around the world.  “This highlights significant blind spots in our strategies designed to sample microbial biodiversity,” says University of British Columbia biodiversity researcher Dr. Patrick Keeling, senior author on the ...

Researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) have developed a murine model for a highly progressive disease called “anti-MDA5 antibody-positive dermatomyositis”, providing insights into underlying biological mechanisms and aiding treatment Tokyo, Japan – Some diseases involve autoimmune reactions, when the body begins to attack its own cells and proteins. The biological mechanisms underlying these diseases are often unknown, making treatment challenging. Now, a group at TMDU has created a murine model for a disease ...

Researchers have unveiled a microfluidic device that significantly improves the separation of tumor cells and clusters from malignant effusions. This novel technology promises to advance the diagnosis and treatment monitoring of cancer by enabling the high-throughput, continuous-flow ternary separation of single tumor cells, tumor cell clusters, and white blood cells (WBCs) from clinical pleural or abdominal effusions. Understanding the nature of malignant effusions, teeming with tumor cells and clusters, is critical in comprehending the breadth of cancer's impact. The significant role of tumor clusters, with their heightened potential ...

PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA [April 11, 2024] — The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®)—an alliance of leading cancer centers—hosted more than 1,700 oncology professionals during the NCCN 2024 Annual Conference on April 5-7. The yearly meeting includes opportunities for care providers to interact with world-renowned specialists on the latest evidence-based expert consensus recommendations for delivering high quality, patient-centered cancer care. Sessions focused on practical applications for improving care at every level, including clinical and administrative ...

Plants can be temperamental. Even weeds along the side of highways or pushing their way up in the cracks of concrete sidewalks can get stressed out by dehydration, cold, excess salt and more. Researchers at Hiroshima University have identified 14 genes that thale cress — a plant commonly used in genetic investigations since its genome is well documented — express more when responding to five specific stressors, as well as eight genes that the plant suppresses. They published their results on March 22 in Frontiers in Plant Science.  “Abiotic stresses — as opposed to biotic stresses like pests or disease — such as drought, salinity and cold negatively ...

Thiazolidinediones (TZDs) are a class of drug that can be used to treat type 2 diabetes by reversing insulin resistance, one of the main hallmarks of the disease. While TZDs were extremely popular in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, they have fallen out of use among physicians in recent decades because they were discovered to cause unwanted side effects, including weight gain and excess fluid accumulation in body tissues. Now, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine are ...