Science
press releases.

Science16 Sep 2023

New perspectives on MAFLD

Fatty liver disease is a condition characterised by a build-up of fat in the liver and is the most common chronic liver disease that affects over one billion people. Over time, this can lead to complications including cirrhosis, liver failure, liver cancer, and heart health issues. The disease is now known as metabolic (dysfunction) associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD). This is because the disease is now understood to be linked to metabolic factors, such as obesity, insulin resistance, and diabetes. MAFLD is a multisystem disorder with a heterogeneous disease course and outcomes. This means that it can affect multiple organs, and the course of the disease can vary from person ...

Read the release

Science16 Sep 2023

Syphilis transmission networks and antimicrobial resistance in England uncovered using genomics

Scientists have used genomics to reveal distinct sexual networks for syphilis transmission, defined geographically or by sexual preference, among a background of wider circulation in England. They also show a presence of drug resistance in the majority of cases. By grouping closely related strains of the bacterium that causes syphilis – Treponema pallidum –, researchers demonstrate how a large number of cases are linked together. Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and their collaborators at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)* sequenced ...

Read the release

Science15 Sep 2023

Rating platforms drive sales at tourist-area NYC eateries

Ratings on platforms such as Yelp and TripAdvisor can greatly impact high-priced New York City restaurants that service tourists, but have less of an effect on restaurants frequented by “locals” outside of tourist areas, according to new Cornell research. “In neighborhoods frequented by ‘locals,’ the advent and expansion of internet-based ratings platforms did not result in greater disparities in restaurant sales despite how ubiquitous they are and how frequently we anecdotally use them,” said Jason Greenberg, associate ...

Read the release

Science15 Sep 2023

Scientists take next big step in understanding genetics of schizophrenia

Genetically speaking, we are individuals different from each other because of slight variations in our DNA sequences – so-called genetic variants – some of which have dramatic effects we can see and comprehend, from the color of our eyes to our risk for developing schizophrenia – a debilitating psychiatric condition affecting many millions worldwide. For several years, scientists have studied the entire genomes of thousands of people – called genome-wide association studies, or GWAS – to find approximately 5,000 genetic variants associated with schizophrenia. Now, ...

Read the release

Science15 Sep 2023

RIT collaboration with global team confirms, disproves distant galaxies

Rochester Institute of Technology scientists have once again used data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) as part of the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey to change the way we think about the universe and its distant galaxies. Jeyhan Kartaltepe, associate professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy, and Rebecca Larson, postdoctoral research associate, co-authored a paper, “Confirmation and refutation of very luminous galaxies in the early Universe,” published in Nature confirming ...

Read the release

Science15 Sep 2023

In major breakthrough, researchers close in on preeclampsia cure

Researchers from Western and Brown University have made groundbreaking progress towards identifying the root cause and potential therapy for preeclampsia. The pregnancy complication affects up to eight per cent of pregnancies globally and is the leading cause of maternal and fetal mortality due to premature delivery, complications with the placenta and lack of oxygen. The research, led by Drs. Kun Ping Lu and Xiao Zhen Zhou at Western, and Drs. Surendra Sharma and Sukanta Jash at Brown, has identified ...

Read the release

Science15 Sep 2023

Facebook's design makes it unable to control misinformation

WASHINGTON (September 15, 2023) – As misinformation flourished online during the Covid-19 pandemic, a number of platforms announced policies and practices aimed at combating the spread of misinformation. Did those efforts work? New research published today in Science Advances suggests that the Covid-19 vaccine misinformation policies of Facebook, the world’s largest social media platform, were not effective in combating misinformation. The study, led by researchers at the George Washington University, found that Facebook’s efforts were undermined by the core design features ...

Read the release

Science15 Sep 2023

Study shows replanting logged forests with diverse mixtures of seedlings accelerates restoration

Twenty-year experiment finds that active replanting beats natural recovery for restoring logged tropical forests. The higher the diversity of replanted tree species, the more quickly canopy area and biomass recovered. Results emphasize the importance of preserving biodiversity in pristine forests and restoring it in recovering logged forest. Satellite observations of one of the world’s biggest ecological experiments on the island of Borneo have revealed that replanting logged forests with diverse mixtures of seedlings can significantly accelerate their recovery. The results have been published today in the journal Science Advances. The ...

Read the release

Science15 Sep 2023

No pollen, no seeds

North Carolina State University researchers have successfully transferred an important gene from one compartment of a plant cell to another to produce tobacco plants that lack pollen and viable seeds, while otherwise growing normally. Their findings could lead to better ways of producing hybrid seeds to maximize crop productivity, or to introduce seedlessness in fruit species lacking the often-desired trait, such as raspberries, blackberries or muscadine grapes. The researchers began the work in the energy-producing portion of a cell, the mitochondria. In plants, aberrations within the mitochondrial genome can be associated with ...

Read the release

Science15 Sep 2023

New ways to predict outcomes of pregnancies with fetal growth problems

A team of scientists, led by researchers at UCL, have developed new methods to predict outcomes for pregnancies where there are issues with poor growth of the baby inside the womb. The research, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, involved 142 women from the EVERREST Prospective Study* who had severe early-onset fetal growth restriction (FGR) – meaning their babies were very small on ultrasound scans early in the second half of pregnancy (between 20 and 27 weeks). Fetal growth restriction affects approximately ...

Read the release

Science15 Sep 2023

New double z-scheme photocatalyst for selective removal of sulfamethoxazole in water

In a new study published on 26 July 2023, in the journal Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, researchers from Harbin Institute of Technology, have developed a novel double Z-scheme photocatalyst, called the molecularly imprinted TiO2@Fe2O3@g-C3N4 (MFTC) composite, that selectively removes SMX from water. Traditional photocatalytic methods have faced challenges with selectivity, often causing the indiscriminate degradation of organic pollutants and coexisting contaminants at high concentrations. However, the MFTC composite was purposefully designed to overcome this limitation by incorporating molecularly imprinted sites on its surface. These specialized ...

Read the release

Science15 Sep 2023

Newly discovered trigger of Parkinson’s upends common beliefs

· How two sisters’ misfortune led to discovery · Findings open a new avenue for therapies · Drugs need to target neuron synapses before neurons degenerate CHICAGO --- A new Northwestern Medicine study challenges a common belief in what triggers Parkinson’s disease. Degeneration of dopaminergic neurons is widely accepted as the first event that leads to Parkinson’s. But the new study suggests that a dysfunction in the neuron’s synapses — the tiny gap across which a neuron can send an impulse to another neuron — leads to deficits in dopamine and precedes the neurodegeneration. Parkinson’s disease ...

Read the release

Science15 Sep 2023

The first local case of mpox caused by an imported case in the Chinese mainland

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bsheal.2023.07.003 Monkeypox (mpox) is a zoonotic disease caused by the mpox virus (MPXV) that has been primarily limited to Central and West African nations since its discovery. The recent spread of the West African lineage of MPXV in historically unaffected countries has raised concerns for global public health. Despite a significant decrease in global mpox cases, there is still a risk of a global resurgence. This study reports the first local case of mpox caused by an imported case in the Chinese mainland. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) diagnosed the two ...

Read the release

Science15 Sep 2023

New parent? Night shift? New analysis suggests ideal nap strategy to survive all-nighters

New analysis of pilot studies on night shift naps conducted from 2012 to 2018 revealed the ideal snoozing strategy that might help counteract drowsiness and fatigue during a 16-hour overnight duty. The findings can also benefit new parents. Reanalysis of data showed that when staying up all night, scheduling two nap sessions — a 90-minute one followed by a quick 30-minute shut-eye later — is the optimal choice over a single 120-minute snooze in putting off drowsiness and fatigue. The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports. “A 90-minute nap to maintain long-term performance and a ...

Read the release

Science15 Sep 2023

Clever lapwings use cover to hide in plain sight

Ground-nesting birds called lapwings use the shape of their nests and surroundings to hide from predators, new research shows. Many ground-nesting species are in decline due to changes in land management and high populations of predators, such as foxes and crows. Conservation projects can fail because too many eggs and chicks are eaten. The new study, led by the University of Exeter, assessed the visibility of lapwing nests in terms of cover (also called “occlusion”) and camouflage using models that simulate the vision and viewing angles of various predators. The findings showed that despite nesting in open fields, lapwings can hide their eggs ...

Read the release

Science15 Sep 2023

When it comes to starting a family, timing is everything

The review, conducted jointly with researchers from Oxford University, the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, and the Princess Anne Hospital in Southampton, included seven randomised controlled trials involving 2,464 women or couples who had been trying to conceive. Each month there is a narrow window for successful conception due to the limited lifespan of the sperm and egg, which begins from around five days before ovulation (egg release) and lasts until several hours afterwards. The period of a woman’s cycle can be identified by different methods, including urine ovulation tests (dipstick ...

Read the release

Science15 Sep 2023

Are us teenagers more likely than others to exaggerate their math abilities?

A major new study has revealed that American teenagers are more likely than any other nationality to brag about their math ability. Research using data from 40,000 15-year-olds from nine English-speaking nations internationally found those in North America were the most likely to exaggerate their mathematical knowledge, while those in Ireland and Scotland were least likely to do so. The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, used responses from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), in which participants took a two-hour maths test alongside a ...

Read the release

Science14 Sep 2023

RIT researcher receives award to advance study of cortical blindness

Rochester Institute of Technology’s Gabriel Diaz, associate professor in the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, has earned the Research to Prevent Blindness/Lions Clubs International Foundation Low Vision Research Award (LVRA), in collaboration with researchers at the University of Rochester. The award is given annually to provide funding for innovative research, which demonstrates out-of-the-box thinking, focuses on the visual system that is damaged, and seeks greater understanding of how the visual system and brain respond to severe and chronic visual ...

Read the release

Science14 Sep 2023

New device rapidly controls postpartum hemorrhage

NEW YORK, NY, Sept. 14, 2023--A study led by Columbia obstetricians has shown that a new intrauterine device can rapidly control postpartum hemorrhage, a major cause of severe maternal morbidity and death, in real-world situations. “Our findings show that the device is an important new tool in managing postpartum bleeding,” says Dena Goffman, MD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and senior author of the study. “We had ...

Read the release

Science14 Sep 2023

Grant funds study of video game for preventing unintended teen pregnancies

Weill Cornell Medicine has been awarded a five-year, $5 million grant from the United States Department of Health and Human Services through the Office of Population Affairs under the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program to conduct a randomized trial testing whether a bilingual video game called “No Baby No (No Bebé No)” can increase the use of contraception among sexually active Black and Hispanic adolescents. “Nine out of ten teens play video games. No Baby No empowers Black and Hispanic adolescents to learn about contraception, and the potential consequences of not using it, in a risk-free virtual ...

Read the release

Science14 Sep 2023

In the “I” of the beholder: People believe self-relevant artwork is more beautiful

People have fairly consistent preferences when it comes to judging the beauty of things in the real world—it’s well known, for example, that humans prefer symmetrical faces. But our feelings about art may be more personal, causing us to prefer art that speaks to our sense of self, research in Psychological Science suggests. “When there is personal meaning in an image, that can dominate your aesthetic judgments way more than any image feature,” said Edward A. Vessel (The City College of New York) in an interview. Though self-relevant ...

Read the release

Science14 Sep 2023

How a molecule deletes neural chat might help treat Angelman syndrome

Researchers from the University of Tokyo reveal how the presynaptic Ube3a E3 ligase, a causal factor in Angelman syndrome, eliminates neural chat. The study helps find a better drug target for the Angelman syndrome treatment. Neurons chat through electrical signals, transmitting information via connection sites between neurons—the synapses. After birth, the number of synapses increases. During childhood, the brain starts to mature and removes many unnecessary synapses. But sometimes, the development of the nervous system goes awry, leading to developmental disorders. Kotaro ...

Read the release

Science14 Sep 2023

Switching off the cytokine storm

Constant exposure of cells to stressing agents, such as pathogens, may disturb an organism’s normal functioning. To fight stress, cells have developed several coping mechanisms, including the inflammatory response. While inflammation is necessary, too much of it can impair cell and organ function. This is the case with cytokine storms – inflammatory cascades during an infection that can spiral out of control and lead to severe disease and even death, as recently highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a new paper published in Science, EMBL Grenoble and University ...

Read the release

Science14 Sep 2023

Study explains why certain immunotherapies don’t always work as predicted

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- This block is broken or missing. You may be missing content or you might need to enable the original module. Cancer drugs known as checkpoint blockade inhibitors have proven effective for some cancer patients. These drugs work by taking the brakes off the body’s T cell response, stimulating those immune cells to destroy tumors. Some studies have shown that these drugs work better in patients whose tumors have a very large number of mutated proteins, which scientists believe is because those proteins offer plentiful ...

Read the release

Science14 Sep 2023

Members of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses support efforts to promote racial equity

September 14, 2023 — More than 90% of the active members of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN) believe the organization should pursue racial equity work, and many have specific suggestions for a strategic plan. This feedback comes from the survey results the association released this month in its journal, Advances in Neonatal Care. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer. "Neonatal care has advanced significantly in recent years, yet ...

Read the release