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press releases.

Science7 Oct 2024

Nguyen working to make complex invariants accessible

Thanhvu Nguyen, Associate Professor, Computer Science, College of Engineering and Computing (CEC), received funding from the National Science Foundation for the project: “Collaborative Research: FMitF: Track II: From Theory to Practice: Making Complex Invariants Accessible with DIG.” Nguyen and his collaborators are developing the invariant generator DIG-I, which is more efficient and scalable than other invariant generators. It also has applications beyond just invariant discovery. The researchers hold that DIG-I will be ...

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Science7 Oct 2024

Menstrual cycle luteal phase lengths are not 'fixed' at 13-14 days

The current expectation is that every ovulatory menstrual cycle will have a luteal phase (the time from egg released until the next flow) that lasts approximately 14 days. It is simple, ovulation covers half of the expected, classical 28-day menstrual cycle. That fits with another current concept, “All regular month-apart menstrual cycles are ovulatory.” “We discovered a wide variety of luteal phase lengths, even in healthy premenopausal women who needed two cycles in a row that were both of normal cycle length and ovulatory in order to join the original study,” said this study’s first author, ...

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Science7 Oct 2024

Should men and women eat different breakfasts to lose weight?

It’s not a bad thing if you pick a toasted bagel for breakfast, while your partner chooses eggs. In fact, according to a new study from the University of Waterloo, that difference could help you lose some weight. The study, which employed a mathematical model of men’s and women’s metabolisms, showed that men’s metabolisms respond better on average to a meal laden with high carbohydrates like oats and grains after fasting for several hours, while women are better served ...

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Science7 Oct 2024

After injury, these comb jellies can fuse to become one

Researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on October 7 have made the surprising discovery that one species of comb jelly (Mnemiopsis leidyi) can fuse, such that two individuals readily turn into one following an injury. Afterwards, they rapidly synchronize their muscle contractions and merge digestive tracts to share food. “Our findings suggest that ctenophores may lack a system for allorecognition, which is the ability to distinguish between self and others,” says Kei Jokura (@Ctenophore18) of the University of Exeter, UK, and National Institutes of Natural Sciences in Okazaki, ...

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Science7 Oct 2024

Longitudinal changes in epigenetic age acceleration across childhood and adolescence

About The Study: The transition from childhood to adolescence may represent a sensitive developmental period when racism can have long-term deleterious impacts on healthy human development across the life span. Future research should build on the present study and interrogate which social regularities and policies may be perpetuating discrimination against ethnically and racially minoritized adolescents. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Juan Del Toro, PhD, email jdeltoro@umn.edu. To ...

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Science7 Oct 2024

Researchers confront new US and global challenges in vaccinations of adults

Vaccines to prevent common and serious infectious diseases have had a greater impact on improving human health than any other medical advance of the 20th century, surpassing even sanitation and potable water. From the global eradication of smallpox in 1980 to the unprecedented development of effective and safe mRNA vaccines for COVID-19, vaccinations have played crucial roles in preventing millions of premature deaths and hospitalizations in adults and children. These monumental efforts have involved coordinated local, regional, national and international organizations and dedicated clinical ...

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Science7 Oct 2024

Unexpected intellectual friendships, like Plato and Aristotle, are the secret of long-term innovation, finds prize-winning US academic

The winner of one of the UK’s biggest academic prizes has discovered what he believes is the key to long-term innovation and economic growth: unplanned intellectual friendships – like Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle, or DNA pioneers James Watson and Francis Crick. Professor Kirk Doran, an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana in the United States, has been researching what drives innovation for 14 years – and has made his discovery by forensically analysing data including published research and census, tax, migration and historical data. Professor Doran has ...

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Science7 Oct 2024

Aussies above 50 are living longer, while younger people are suffering

Australians under 50 are experiencing stagnating life expectancy while older cohorts, especially men, are living longer, according to new research from The Australian National University (ANU). The study examined longevity trends and patterns in six English-speaking countries (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States) and compared them with other high-income countries. The results show striking similarities between English-speaking countries in terms of adverse health outcomes for young and middle-aged adults under fifty. Lead author and ANU demographer, Dr Sergey Timonin, said the study ...

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Science7 Oct 2024

Tax, smoke-free legislation, and anti-smoking campaigns linked to smoking reduction

Tobacco use remains a significant global health challenge, despite extensive control measures at both national and international levels. Smoking continues to be a leading cause of premature death, with exposure to tobacco—whether through active smoking or secondhand smoke—significantly increasing the risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory conditions, and diabetes. These NCDs account for nearly 75% of annual global deaths. A wide range of strategies has been developed to combat smoking and promote public health, including taxation, mass media campaigns, health warnings on packaging, marketing ...

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Science7 Oct 2024

A new study reveals a key mechanism driving atherosclerosis in Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome

A team of researchers from the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC), the Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas Margarita Salas (CIB-CSIC), and the Instituto de Ciencias de Materiales de Madrid (ICMM-CSIC) has made a significant breakthrough in understanding the underlying causes of cardiovascular disease in patients with Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS), an ultra-rare genetic disorder that accelerates the aging process. The most serious consequence of HGPS is the early onset of cardiovascular disease, leading to premature death at an average age of 14.5 years. The study was led by Dr. Vicente Andrés, ...

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Science7 Oct 2024

HPV vaccination switch to 1-dose gender-neutral approach

Canadian vaccination programs could switch to a 1-dose gender-neutral human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination approach and eliminate cervical cancer, suggests new modelling in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.240787. “Our results have important policy implications in Canada, and in other similar high-income countries evaluating whether to switch to 1-dose HPV vaccination,” writes Dr. Marc Brisson, a full professor at Laval University, Québec, and director of the Mathematical Modeling and Health Economics of Infectious Diseases Lab at the ...

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Science7 Oct 2024

Scientists discover a secret to regulating our body clock, offering new approach to end jet lag

Singapore, 7 October 2024—Scientists from Duke-NUS Medical School and the University of California, Santa Cruz, have discovered the secret to regulating our internal clock. They identified that this regulator sits right at the tail end of Casein Kinase 1 delta (CK1δ), a protein which acts as a pace setter for our internal biological clock or the natural 24-hour cycles that control sleep-wake patterns and other daily functions, known as circadian rhythm. Published in the journal PNAS, their findings could ...

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Science4 Oct 2024

Early release from NEJM Evidence

This article was published Early Release to coincide with a presentation at the Symposium on Advanced Wound Care in Las Vegas, NV. Full text is now available on evidence.nejm.org. Email mediarelations@nejm.org for access. Original Article: Intact Fish Skin Graft to Treat Deep Diabetic Foot Ulcers Dured Dardari, M.D, Ph.D., From the Diabetology Department, Center Hopitalier Sud Francilien, Corbeil-Essonnes, France, and the LBEPS, Université d’Evry, IRBA, Université Paris Saclay, 91025 Evry, France. If you have any questions for our office, please contact our Media Relations ...

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Science4 Oct 2024

Life on Earth was more diverse than classical theory suggests 800 million years ago, a Brazilian study shows

About 800 million years ago (mya), before the supercontinent Pangea formed, the Earth was more diverse than classical theory suggests. By reconstructing the tree of life from the evolutionary history of amoebas and the ancestors of algae, fungi, plants and animals, Brazilian researchers have created a scenario in which several different lineages of many species inhabited the planet during the period. An article reporting their findings is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). According to the literature, several lineages of eukaryotes that first emerged 1.5 billion years ago diversified and ...

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Science4 Oct 2024

New therapeutic target for cardiac arrhythmias emerges

A new study by researchers at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix and the University of California Davis Health identified a new target for developing a therapy to treat atrial fibrillation, the most common type of abnormal heart rhythm. Atrial fibrillation, commonly called AFib or AF, causes about 1 in 7 strokes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and is associated with a significant increase in the risk of morbidity and mortality. More than 12 million people are expected to have AFib by 2030, according to the American Heart Association, and current treatment ...

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Science4 Oct 2024

UC Irvine researchers are first to reveal role of ophthalmic acid in motor function control

Irvine, Calif., Oct. 4, 2024 — A research team from the University of California, Irvine is the first to reveal that a molecule in the brain – ophthalmic acid – unexpectedly acts like a neurotransmitter similar to dopamine in regulating motor function, offering a new therapeutic target for Parkinson’s and other movement diseases. In the study, published in the October issue of the journal Brain, researchers observed that ophthalmic acid binds to and activates calcium-sensing ...

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Science4 Oct 2024

Are auditory magic tricks possible for a blind audience?

Magic tricks make the impossible seem possible. Magicians have long captivated audiences with visual tricks, such as pulling a bunny from a hat or sawing someone in half, but tricks that rely on sound are scarce. A new article published in the Cell Press journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences on October 4 explores why creating a magical experience using only sound may be challenging and underscores the importance of making magic accessible to people with blindness. "Given that magic is about the conflict between perceptual processes and our beliefs, we should be able to experience magic in ...

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Science4 Oct 2024

Pterosaurs needed feet on the ground to become giants

The evolutionary adaptations that allowed ancient pterosaurs to grow to enormous sizes have been pinpointed for the first time by palaeontologists in the Centre for Palaeobiology and Biosphere Evolution at the University of Leicester. The discovery revealed a surprising twist – the ability to walk efficiently on the ground played a crucial role in determining how large the biggest flying animals could grow, with some reaching wingspans of up to 10 metres. In a new study published today (4 October) in Current ...

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Science4 Oct 2024

Scientists uncover auditory “sixth sense” in geckos

University of Maryland biologists identified a hidden sensory talent in geckos that’s shaking up what we thought we knew about animal hearing. In a new study published in Current Biology on October 4, 2024, the researchers revealed that geckos use the saccule—a part of their inner ear traditionally associated with maintaining balance and body positioning—to detect low-frequency vibrations. According to the researchers, this special “sixth sense” also plays a complementary role to the geckos’ normal hearing and the way they sense ...

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Science4 Oct 2024

Cilta-cel found highly effective in first real-world study

(WASHINGTON – October 4, 2024) In the first study to report real-world outcomes from ciltacabtagene autoleucel (cilta-cel), a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T therapy for multiple myeloma, patients experienced efficacy and safety results similar to those seen in clinical trials, according to results published today in Blood. Of 236 patients who received cilta-cel infusions at 16 U.S. medical centers in 2022, 89% saw their cancer respond to the treatment and 70% had a complete response, meaning there was no detectable cancer after the treatment. These numbers ...

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Science4 Oct 2024

UC Merced co-leads initiative to combat promotion and tenure bias against Black and Hispanic faculty

Black and Hispanic faculty members seeking promotion at research universities face career-damaging biases, with their scholarly production judged more harshly than that of their peers, according to a groundbreaking initiative co-led by the University of California, Merced that aims to uncover the roots of these biases and develop strategies for change. Junior professors are generally evaluated and voted on for promotion and tenure by committees comprising senior colleagues. In one of the studies conducted by the research team, results suggest that faculty from underrepresented minorities received 7% more negative votes from ...

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Science4 Oct 2024

Liver X receptor beta: a new frontier in treating depression and anxiety

Houston, Texas – In a state-of-the-art Bench to Bedside review published in the journal Brain Medicine (Genomic Press), researchers Dr. Xiaoyu Song and Professor Jan-Åke Gustafsson from the University of Houston and Karolinska Institutet (Sweden) shed light on the therapeutic potential of liver X receptor beta (LXRβ) in treating depression and anxiety. This comprehensive analysis marks a significant step forward in understanding the molecular underpinnings of mental health disorders and potentially revolutionizing their treatment. LXRβ, a nuclear receptor initially known for its role in cholesterol metabolism and inflammation, is now emerging as a crucial ...

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Science4 Oct 2024

Improving fumaric acid production efficiency through a ‘more haste, less speed’ strategy

As plastic waste continues to build up faster than it can decompose, the need for biodegradable solutions is evident. Previously, Professor Yutaka Amao and his team at Osaka Metropolitan University’s Research Center for Artificial Photosynthesis succeeded in synthesizing fumaric acid, a raw material for biodegradable plastics from biomass-derived pyruvic acid and carbon dioxide. However, the fumaric acid production process reported earlier has a problem with producing undesirable substances as byproducts in addition to L-malic acid, which is ...

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Science4 Oct 2024

Water fluoridation less effective now than in past

The dental health benefits of adding fluoride to drinking water may be smaller now than before fluoride toothpaste was widely available, an updated Cochrane review has found. The team of researchers from the Universities of Manchester, Dundee and Aberdeen reviewed the evidence from 157 studies which compared communities that had fluoride added to their water supplies with communities that had no additional fluoride in their water. They found that the benefit of fluoridation has declined since the 1970s, when fluoride toothpaste became more widely available. The contemporary studies were conducted in high-income countries. The impact of community water fluoridation ...

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Science4 Oct 2024

Toddlers get nearly half their calories from ultra-processed foods

Toddlers in the UK obtain nearly half (47%) of their calories from ultra-processed foods (UPFs), and this rises to 59% by the age of seven, according to a new study led by UCL researchers. The study, published in the European Journal of Nutrition, looked at data from 2,591 children born in the UK in 2007 and 2008 whose parents recorded what their children ate and drank over three days. The most common UPFs consumed by the toddlers – who were 21 months when their parents recorded their diets – were flavoured ...

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