World-renowned physicians and scientists will gather at the Houston Methodist Research Institute September 17-18 to discuss pioneering research discoveries and technologies in neuroscience that have the potential to transform the field and evolve into innovative treatments for neurological disorders of all kinds. Hosted by the Houston Methodist and Rice University Center for Neural Systems Restoration, the symposium brings together experts in the field of neural circuits, neural technology and neuro-restoration. Twenty-four speakers will highlight the ...

More accurately predicting periods of increased hurricane activity weeks in advance may become possible due to new research published this month. The study, led by the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR), shows that twice as many hurricanes form two days after the passing of large-scale atmospheric waves called Kelvin waves than in the days before. This finding may enable forecasters and emergency managers to anticipate clusters of hurricanes days to weeks in advance.  The research team used an innovative ...

Gender nonconformity in 7-year-olds — as measured by levels of gender-conforming play — may be associated with autistic traits and behavioral difficulties in girls, and with peer relationship problems in boys, according to a new study published August 28, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Marlene Stratmann of Karlstad University, Sweden, and colleagues. Gender nonconformity (GNC) refers to variations in gender expression from societal and cultural gender norms. In childhood, GNC can manifest itself in several ways, including play behavior, peer relationships, clothing, and body language. Childhood GNC does not directly indicate developing gender ...

A new study finds that, counter to expectations, geographic disparities in rates of homicides in the US have decreased in recent decades. Richard Boylan of Rice University in Houston, Texas, US, presents these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on August 28, 2024. Since the 1970s, gaps in economic and social wellbeing between Americans living in different regions have grown. Some researchers hypothesize that areas with reduced economic and social well-being would see higher rates of violent crime. For instance, impoverished areas with lower tax bases might receive less police protection, ...

Slow growth in health sector spending is projected in Sub-Saharan Africa as reported in a study published in the open access journal, PLOS Global Public Health. The decline is expected to continue to 2050, according to Angela E Apeagyei and researchers at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, Seattle, and is driven by tepid growth in the share of government spending that is allocated to health and reductions in development assistance for health. The research analyses data from databases covering development assistance for health, global health spending and gross domestic spending (GDP) per capita ...

Diagnostic labels for people experiencing what some consider to be relatively milder forms of mental-ill health may affect how others perceive them for better and worse, according to a study published August 28, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS Mental Health by Nick Haslam from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues. In recent years, there’s been a general shift to increased diagnoses of mental ill-health. Here, Haslam and colleagues investigate the implications of diagnosing individuals presenting with ...

“Unhealthy commodities” such as tobacco, alcohol, ultra-processed foods, social media, and fossil fuels, as well as impacts of fossil fuel consumption such as climate change and air pollution are associated with depression, suicide, and self-harm, according to a study published August 28 by Kate Dun-Campbell from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and colleagues. Globally, around one out of every eight people currently live with a mental health disorder. These disorders—including depression, suicide, anxiety, and other diseases and disorders—can have many underlying causes. ...

Bacterial cells can “remember” brief, temporary changes to their bodies and immediate surroundings, a new Northwestern University and University of Texas-Southwestern study has found. And, although these changes are not encoded in the cell’s genetics, the cell still passes memories of them to its offspring — for multiple generations. Not only does this discovery challenge long-held assumptions of how the simplest organisms transmit and inherit physical traits, it also could be leveraged for new medical applications. For example, researchers could circumvent antibiotic resistance by subtly tweaking a pathogenic ...

If you’ve seen those viral social media videos of dogs using soundboard buttons to “talk,” you’re not alone. These buttons have taken the pet world by storm, leading to impressive and sometimes seemingly miraculous feats shared across platforms like TikTok and Instagram. But are these dogs truly communicating, or are they just responding to cues from their owners? Now, a new study published in PLOS ONE – by researchers from the University of California San Diego and other institutions – ...

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and UMass Chan Medical School have demonstrated in mice a new method to combat pancreatic cancer. The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, outlines the synergistic effects of a novel nanoparticle drug-delivery system to activate an immune pathway in combination with tumor-targeting agents.    Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most common form of pancreatic cancer. With a dismal,13% five-year survival rate, it is the third leading cause of cancer deaths.   One major ...

An archaeogenetic study sheds new light on the isolated medieval community Las Gobas in northern Spain. Besides isolation and endogamy, the researchers have also identified the variola virus which can offer a new explanation on how smallpox entered Iberia. Researchers from Sweden and Spain have conducted a comprehensive archaeogenetic study on a community that lived on the border between the northern Christian kingdoms and Al-Andalus during the early Medieval period. This dynamic era, especially ...

A new discovery by researchers at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics (BDR) in Japan upends decades of assumptions regarding DNA replication. Led by Ichiro Hiratani and colleagues, the experiments published August 28 in Nature show that DNA replication in early embryos is different from what past research has taught, and includes a period of instability that is prone to chromosomal copying errors. As failed pregnancies and developmental disorders are often related to chromosomal abnormalities the findings could impact the field of reproductive medicine, perhaps leading to improved methods of in vitro fertilization (IVF). During embryogenesis, ...

NEW YORK, NY (Aug. 28, 2024)--An analysis of more than 1.6 million brain cells from older adults has captured the cellular changes that occur in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, potentially revealing new routes for preventing the most common cause of dementia in older individuals. The study also identified a second community of cells that drives the older brain down a different path that does not lead to Alzheimer’s disease.  “Our study highlights that Alzheimer’s is a disease of many cells and their interactions, not just a single type of dysfunctional ...

When it comes to survival, plants have a huge disadvantage compared to many other living organisms: they cannot simply change their location if predators or pathogens attack them or the environmental conditions change to their disadvantage. For this reason, plants have developed different strategies with which they react to such attacks. Such reactions are usually triggered by certain signals from the environment. As has long been known, the intracellular calcium concentration plays an important role in the processing of these signals. However, in addition to changes in the cytoplasmic calcium level, changes in the cell's ...

A pivotal study has pinpointed a gene module crucial for enhancing walnut trees' resistance to anthracnose, a widespread fungal disease threatening the walnut industry. The research reveals how the JrPHL8-JrWRKY4-JrSTH2L module regulates disease defense, opening up new opportunities for breeding resistant walnut varieties and promoting sustainable cultivation practices. Anthracnose, caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, poses a significant threat to walnut production, causing severe losses ...

Roadway-related incidents are a leading cause of flood fatalities nationwide, but limited flood-reporting tools make it difficult to evaluate road conditions in real time. Existing tools — traffic cameras, water-level sensors and even social media data — can provide observations of flooding, but they are often not primarily designed for sensing flood conditions on roads and do not work in conjunction. A network of sensors could improve situational flood level awareness; however, they are expensive to operate at scale. Engineers at Rice University have developed a possible solution to this problem: an automated data ...

NEW ORLEANS – Ochsner Health has announced David A. Schwartz, MD, as the 2024 winner of the Alton Ochsner Award Relating Smoking and Disease. Dr. Schwartz is a Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Immunology and director of the Program to Advance Physician Scientists and Translational Research at University of Colorado’s Anschutz School of Medicine.  Dr. Schwartz won the 39th annual Alton Ochsner Award for his research on how genetic and environmental factors, including smoking, contribute to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). He found that ...

Charlottesville, VA — Schools across the country are rapidly switching to solar power to meet their energy needs while gaining significant cost-savings, boosting climate resilience, and supporting workforce development, according to a new report from clean energy nonprofit Generation180. Since the start of 2014, the amount of solar capacity installed at K-12 schools has more than quadrupled nationwide. According to Brighter Future: A Study of Solar on K-12 Schools, 5th edition, over 6.2 million U.S. K-12 students– or more than one in nine students – now attend a school that utilizes solar power. In 2022-2023, over 800 schools added solar arrays, which is enough ...

HOUSTON – (Aug. 28, 2024) – Rice University researchers have developed a smart material that adjusts its transparency with changes in temperature, outperforming similar materials in terms of durability, transparency and responsiveness. The new polymer blend could significantly enhance energy efficiency for indoor space cooling, according to a new study published in Joule. Cooling off can be a matter of life or death, but air conditioning ⎯ when and if available ⎯ already accounts for 7% of the world’s energy use and 3% of carbon emissions. With temperatures hitting record ...

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation has named 16 new Damon Runyon Fellows, exceptional postdoctoral scientists conducting basic and translational cancer research in the laboratories of leading senior investigators. This prestigious Fellowship encourages the nation's most promising young scientists to pursue careers in cancer research by providing them with independent funding ($300,000 total) to investigate cancer causes, mechanisms, therapies, and prevention. “What is so exciting—and so challenging—about being a postdoc is that you’re called to take what you know and apply ...

August 28, 2024 — Primary care providers are well positioned to address emotional eating because of their long-term relationships with patients, noted Jana DeSimone Wozniak, PhD and Hsiang Huang, MD, MPH, of Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance in Cambridge, Massachusetts. According to their article published in Harvard Review of Psychiatry, part of the Lippincott portfolio from Wolters Kluwer, emotional eating is associated with myriad health problems, including the experience of ...

More than 50% of ride-hailing trips taken by surveyed riders in California replaced more sustainable forms of transportation — such as walking, cycling, carpooling, and public transit — or created new vehicle miles, according to a study from the University of California, Davis Institute of Transportation Studies.  The study was conducted to help guide development of the Clean Miles Standard, a state regulation designed by the California Air Resources Board to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from ride-hailing services.  Published in Transportation Research ...

“We have developed a nanodrug, termed MN-anti-miR10b, that delivers anti-miR-10b antisense oligomers to cancer cells.” BUFFALO, NY- August 28, 2024 – A new research paper was published in Oncotarget's Volume 15 on August 26, 2024, entitled, “Inhibition of miR-10b treats metastatic breast cancer by targeting stem cell-like properties.” As stated within the Abstract of the paper, despite advances in breast cancer screening and treatment, the prognosis for metastatic disease remains dismal, with ...

Male fruit flies will become oblivious to physical danger as they become more engaged in courtship and sex, new research shows. Researchers at the University of Birmingham have shown that pursuit of a coveted reward – in this case a female fly – will cause a male fruit fly to ignore threats such as predation. In the study, published today (28 Aug) in Nature, the team was able to show for the first time the neural networks in the fly’s brain that direct this decision-making process, revealing the neurotransmitter dopamine has a leading role to play. Lead researcher Dr Carolina Rezaval said: “Every day we make decisions that require us to ...

The risk of death for people who donate a kidney for transplantation — already small a decade ago — has dropped by more than half since then, a new study shows. Each year, roughly 6,000 Americans volunteer to donate a kidney, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. Before undergoing the procedure, donors are informed of the potential risks, including death. Based on data from 1995 through 2009, experts had originally predicted that about three of every 10,000 donors were likely to die within three months of the procedure. The authors of the ...