Science
press releases.

Science20 Jul 2023

New study expands the scope of aza-friedel−crafts reactions

From life-saving drugs and synthetic polymers to diverse advanced materials, the products containing organic compounds seem endless, thanks in part to regioselectivity, a feature in chemical reactions where a substituent is selectively added to a specific position of an organic compound. This favors the formation of desired products with specific functionalities. One notable regioselective reaction used for the precise design of organic compounds is the Friedel−Crafts reaction, which enables the addition of substituents to specific positions on aromatic compounds ...

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Science20 Jul 2023

Precision measurement of polarization

NEWPORT NEWS, VA – A doctoral dissertation examining the most precise measurement of electron beam polarization ever made was just awarded the prestigious 2022 Jefferson Science Associates (JSA) Thesis Prize. Since 2017, award-winner Allison Zec has been part of a collaboration that ran experiments at the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The goal of both the CREX and PREX-II experiments was to run an experiment and its mirror opposite simultaneously to determine ...

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Science20 Jul 2023

New research sheds light on factors influencing trust and bias in societies

People with more positive perceptions of their nation’s institutions are more likely to show favoritism toward fellow citizens, according to new research in Social Psychological and Personality Science. This research suggests that support for national institutions could pose a challenge for establishing trust across borders. Researchers also found that people who identify strongly with their own nation are likely to favor their fellow citizens, which aligns with previous studies. The possible role of trust in national institutions, however, was an unexpected development for researchers. “We observed greater favoritism in trust toward fellow citizens ...

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Science20 Jul 2023

Mark Hauber to lead the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center

New York, NY – The City University of New York Graduate Center is pleased to announce the appointment of Mark Hauber as the executive director of its Advanced Science Research Center (CUNY ASRC). Established in 2014, the CUNY ASRC is a world-class STEM research and education institution dedicated to interdisciplinary science that addresses global challenges and develops innovative technologies that will advance the economies of New York State and the nation. Its five research initiatives center on nanoscience, photonics, structural ...

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Science20 Jul 2023

New advances in integrating mechanisms of multiple stress response in conifers

The proper response to various abiotic stresses is essential for plants’ survival to overcome their sessile nature, especially for perennial trees with very long-life cycles. However, in conifers, the molecular mechanisms that coordinate multiple abiotic stress responses remain elusive. This article has been published on Horticulture Research with title: An ethylene-induced NAC transcription factor acts as a multiple abiotic stress responsor in conifer. Here, the transcriptome response to various abiotic stresses like salt, cold, drought, heat shock and osmotic were systematically detected in Pinus tabuliformis (P. ...

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Science20 Jul 2023

Use of law enforcement strategies to curb underage drinking has decreased over past decade: Study

By Kimberly Flynn PISCATAWAY, NJ — Despite the harm that excessive alcohol consumption can cause in a community, use of some alcohol-related enforcement strategies remained low or decreased from 2010 to 2019, according to a new report in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. In particular, researchers found a drop in enforcement of underage drinking laws. Researchers at the University of Minnesota first surveyed 1,028 county and municipal law enforcement agencies throughout the United States in 2010 about their practices regarding three factors to alcohol harms in communities: underage drinking, impaired ...

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Science20 Jul 2023

Dreaming in technicolor

A team of computer scientists and designers based out of the University of Waterloo have developed a tool to help people use colour better in graphic design. The tool, De-Stijl, uses powerful machine learning technology to suggest intuitive colour palettes for novice designers and inexperienced users. The software combines and improves on the functionalities of existing tools like Figma, Pixlr, and Coolor, allowing users to select important theme colors and quickly visualize how they’ll impact a design. “You put your graphical ...

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Science20 Jul 2023

NIH renews UC Davis MIND Institute grant to study fragile X-associated syndromes for 24th year

It’s been 22 years since UC Davis MIND Institute Medical Director Randi Hagerman and her husband, researcher Paul Hagerman, discovered the neurodegenerative condition called FXTAS (fragile X-associated tremor ataxia syndrome). Hagerman, a pediatrician known for her enthusiasm for her work and patients, has been studying FXTAS ever since, seeking to develop treatments for it. She was recently awarded her 24th consecutive year of funding from the National Institutes of Health for her fragile X-related work, a ...

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Science19 Jul 2023

A non-covalent bonding experience

UPTON, NY—Putting a suite of new materials synthesis and characterization methods to the test, a team of scientists from the University of Iowa and the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory has developed 14 organic-inorganic hybrid materials, seven of which are entirely new. These uranium-based materials, as well as the detailed report of their bonding mechanisms, will help advance clean energy solutions, including safe nuclear energy. The work, currently published online, was recognized as both a Very Important Paper and a Hot Topic: Crystal Engineering in ...

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Science19 Jul 2023

Picturing where wildlands and people meet at a global scale

Researchers led by a team at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have created the first tool to map and visualize the areas where human settlements and nature meet on a global scale. The tool, which was part of a study recently published in Nature, could improve responses to environmental conflicts like wildfires, the spread of zoonotic diseases and loss of ecosystem biodiversity. These areas where people and wildlands meet are called the wildland-urban interface, or WUI for short. More technically, a WUI (pronounced “woo-ee”) describes anywhere that has at least one house per 40 acres and is also 50% covered by wildland ...

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Science19 Jul 2023

Winery experiences affected by more than what is in your glass

New research from the University of British Columbia's Okanagan campus has determined that enjoying a tasting at a winery goes well beyond the sip. Professor Annamma Joy, with UBCO’s Faculty of Management, conducts research in the area of consumer behaviour and branding with a special focus on luxury brands, fashion brand experiences, wineries and wine tourism. Dr. Joy, along with her collaborators and students, studied several Okanagan wineries over a three-year period to comprehensively document the experiences ...

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Science19 Jul 2023

Researchers use mass spectrometry to explore antimicrobial resistance

Laura-Isobel McCall, Ph.D., and Zhibo Yang, Ph.D., co-principal investigators and associate professors of chemistry and biochemistry in the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oklahoma, have been awarded a prestigious R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health for their project, “Novel single-cell mass spectrometry to assess the role of intracellular drug concentration and metabolism in antimicrobial treatment failure.” “Our project builds upon Dr. ...

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Science19 Jul 2023

Novel therapeutic strategy against melanoma: combined targeting of hedgehog signaling and BRD4

“This evidence strengthens the relevance of the findings by Pietrobono et al., shedding light on the potential application of SMO inhibitors in concert with BRD4 inhibitors.” BUFFALO, NY- July 19, 2023 – A new editorial paper was published in Oncotarget's Volume 14 on May 26, 2023, entitled, “Combined targeting of HEDGEHOG signaling and BRD4 as a novel therapeutic option against melanoma.” The Hedgehog-GLI (HH/GLI) pathway is aberrantly activated in several types of cancer. Canonical HH/ GLI pathway is triggered by binding of HH ligands to the twelve-pass transmembrane receptor Patched 1 (PTCH1), which retrieves its inhibition ...

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Science19 Jul 2023

STEM instructors who are women drive disclosure of concealable stigmatized identities to undergraduates

Women working as STEM instructors are more likely than men in the same profession to disclose to their undergraduate students identities which could carry stigma, such as depression or growing up in a low-income household. In the new study, published July 19, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, Carly Busch of Arizona State University, USA, and colleagues suggest that these decisions to disclose may be in order to act as role models for students. Concealable stigmatized identities (CSIs) are identities that ...

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Science19 Jul 2023

A 300,000 year-old double-pointed wooden stick was produced by Middle Pleistocene humans using sophisticated woodworking techniques and was likely used for throwing during hunts

Article URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0287719 Article Title: A double-pointed wooden throwing stick from Schöningen, Germany: Results and new insights from a multianalytical study Author Countries: UK, Germany Funding: T.T. and this project are funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – project number 447423357. https://www.dfg.de/. The project is further funded by the Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture, with funds from the Future Lower Saxony Programme of the Volkswagen Foundation – project ...

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Science19 Jul 2023

Early humans were weapon woodwork experts, study finds

A 300,000-year-old hunting weapon has shone a new light on early humans as woodworking masters, according to a new study. State-of-the-art analysis of a double-pointed wooden throwing stick, found in Schöningen in Germany three decades ago, shows it was scraped, seasoned and sanded before being used to kill animals. The research indicates early humans’ woodworking techniques were more developed and sophisticated than previously understood. The findings, published today (Wednesday, 19 July) in PLOS ONE, also suggest the ...

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Science19 Jul 2023

Enabling autonomous exploration

A research group in Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute is creating the next generation of explorers — robots. The Autonomous Exploration Research Team has developed a suite of robotic systems and planners enabling robots to explore more quickly, probe the darkest corners of unknown environments, and create more accurate and detailed maps. The systems allow robots to do all this autonomously, finding their way and creating a map without human intervention. "You can set it in any environment, like a department store or a residential building after a disaster, and off it goes," ...

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Science19 Jul 2023

More than just lifestyle and genes: New factor influencing excess body weight discovered

What determines whether we become overweight? Aside from lifestyle, predisposition plays a role, but genes cannot fully explain the inherited propensity to accumulate excess weight. A new study by Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin in Science Translational Medicine* shows that a kind of formatting of the DNA code in one gene that is associated with satiety is implicated in a slightly elevated risk of excess body weight – at least in women. This “epigenetic marking” is established early on during the embryonic stage. People who are overweight, especially those who ...

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Science19 Jul 2023

Why ongoing worker safety training is critical to effective disaster response

When it comes to disaster response and recovery operations, it is crucial that workers are prepared before there is an emergency, according to Rutgers researchers. Their study, published in New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy, outlines the importance of the Worker Training Program to United States emergency and disaster-response infrastructure. "It is essential to identify and deliver core disaster training to responders and workers on a routine basis prior to an [emergency] event," said Mitchel Rosen, an associate professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health. “The failure ...

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Science19 Jul 2023

MD Anderson research highlights for July 19, 2023

HOUSTON ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights showcases the latest breakthroughs in cancer care, research and prevention. These advances are made possible through seamless collaboration between MD Anderson’s world-leading clinicians and scientists, bringing discoveries from the lab to the clinic and back. Recent developments include promising results from combining immunotherapy with radiation for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), a novel combination therapy for secondary and treatment-resistant ...

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Science19 Jul 2023

Noninvasive method for vagus nerve stimulation shows promise for enhancing motor rehabilitation after stroke

The longest nerve in the human body starts in the brain and meanders its way down the neck and into the chest, where it splits into separate branches, winding its twisting tendrils to touch each internal organ. Known as the “information superhighway” and aptly named from the Latin word meaning “wanders,” the vagus nerve is a bundle of fibers responsible for the parasympathetic nervous system: digestion, heart rate, breathing. Sending electrical impulses down this tenth cranial nerve has proven effective in treating conditions like depression and epilepsy, ...

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Science19 Jul 2023

Dedicated older people’s emergency department reduces wait times

The formation of the country’s first emergency department for the over 80s led to a significant decrease in time spent in A&E – according to research from the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) and University of East Anglia (UEA). The first Older People’s Emergency Department in England was opened at NNUH in December 2017 to bring specialists in older people’s medicine to the front doors of the hospital and provide earlier assessment and treatment for patients. A new study evaluates the outcomes for patients who received treatment in the main emergency department at NNUH and a similar ...

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Science19 Jul 2023

New study uses gene prediction tool to select premium grade Angus herds in Missouri and across the United States

Ranches across the Show-Me State manage approximately two million cattle — a significant number of which are Angus, a top-tier breed that has unrivaled success in the commercial beef market. In a new study, University of Missouri researcher Jared Decker and Thompson Research Farm tested a group of commercial Angus cows using a commercial genomic prediction tool called Zoetis GeneMax Advantage to investigate the ability of the test to predict their calves’ performance and profitability. This project demonstrates ...

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Science19 Jul 2023

It’s a beautiful day in the intestinal neighborhood

When you think about your ideal neighborhood, perhaps you think of tree-lined streets or a close-knit community of people who help each other. You probably don’t think about your digestive system. But maybe you should. According to a team of scientists led by researchers at Stanford Medicine, there are indeed “neighborhoods” of different cell types cooperating to digest your food and protect you from infection, among other things — and a new, ultra-high-resolution map of these neighborhoods proves your intestine is both functionally impressive and visually striking. Just like human neighborhoods, ...

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Science19 Jul 2023

Researchers put a new twist on graphite

FROM: James Urton University of Washington 206-543-2580 jurton@uw.edu (Note: researcher contact information at the end) Embargoed by Nature For public release at 11 a.m. Eastern Time (8 a.m. Pacific Time; 4 p.m. British Summer Time) on Wednesday, July 19, 2023 Researchers put a new twist on graphite For decades, scientists have been probing the potential of two-dimensional materials to transform our world. 2D materials are only a single layer of atoms thick. Within them, subatomic particles like electrons can only move in two dimensions. This simple restriction can trigger unusual electron behavior, ...

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