Philadelphia, November 28, 2023 – Researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) found that seizure patterns and response to treatment strategies were able to help clinical teams determine epilepsy and developmental trajectories for patients with STXBP1-related disorders, one of the most common genetic epilepsy disorders. The findings were published online by the journal Brain. Disease-causing variants in the gene STXBP1 are implicated in one of the most common genetic epilepsies and neurodevelopmental disorders, which are sometimes accompanied by autism spectrum disorder, increased or decreased muscle tone, or movement disorders. ...

An international study group led by researchers of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have identified how three novel genes cause neurodevelopmental disorders. Researchers now have a better sense of the genes’ roles in human brain development and function and their ability to serve as potential therapeutic targets in the future. The findings were recently published online by the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Over the last couple of decades, researchers have identified more than 1500 genes in different signaling pathways associated ...

DALLAS, November 28, 2023 — Cardiovascular disease (CVD) claims more lives than all forms of cancer, yet many women, particularly younger women, remain unaware.[1] Through its Go Red for Women® movement, the American Heart Association, which is devoted to a world of healthier lives for all, is being supported by Miss America’s Scholarship Foundation to empower the next generation of women to take charge of their health and make a lasting impact on the health and well-being of communities nationwide. The ...

Nanodiamonds are 2-8 nm carbon nanoparticles, which can be easily functionalized with various chemical groups like carboxylic groups or drugs. Previous research has shown that actively dividing cells are more likely to absorb nanodiamonds and that epithelial cells treated with carboxylic nanodiamonds lose the ability to migrate across cell permeable cellulose membranes. Rajiv K. Saxena and colleagues explored whether nanodiamonds might block tumor metastasis, a process that requires cell migration to new areas. The authors treated B16F10 melanoma cells with carboxylic nanodiamonds in culture and tested their ability to migrate and ...

Decarbonization of the global economy will require the production of a large number of batteries for electric vehicles (EVs). However, these batteries require energy and an array of minerals to produce and are not without their own environmental impacts. Fanran Meng and colleagues trace the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the global productions and supply chains of two common battery technologies as well as their future variants: nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) and lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP). Today, two-thirds of battery-related emissions occur in China (45%), Indonesia (13%), and Australia (9%), in part due to emissions-intensive electricity for ...

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai announced today the launch of a new center for “Research on Emerging Substances, Poisoning, and Overdose, for New Discoveries,” to be known as the RESPOND Center. Its research findings could lead to major advances in this area of medicine, including better treatments for patients with drug overdoses in emergency departments across the United States. “Each day, clinicians on the front lines bear witness to devastating impacts from the current epidemic ...

CHICAGO – New research being presented this week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) links soccer heading – where players hit the ball with their head – to a measurable decline in the microstructure and function of the brain over a two-year period. “There is enormous worldwide concern for brain injury in general and in the potential for soccer heading to cause long-term adverse brain effects in particular,” said senior author Michael L. Lipton, M.D., Ph.D., professor of radiology at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and affiliate professor of ...

CHICAGO – Smoking marijuana in combination with cigarettes may lead to increased damage of the lung’s air sacs, according to research being presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).   It is commonly believed that smoking marijuana is not harmful to the lungs. There is an abundance of established research that identifies the harms of cigarette smoking. In contrast, very little is known about the effects of marijuana smoking, and even less research has been done on the combined effects of smoking marijuana and cigarettes. “Marijuana is the most widely used illicit psychoactive ...

Essential features of the cortex, an important part of the human brain and its development, are more accurately captured in organoids generated by researchers of the Princess Máxima Center for pediatric oncology and the Hubrecht Institute. The scientists developed mini-organs with features like cell organization, stem cell expansion and cell identity that more closely mimic the real-life situation. These novel organoids can be used as a basis to model pediatric brain tumors. Multiple childhood brain tumors, like cortical gliomas, arise from the cortex, the outer layer of the largest part of the brain and the brain’s ...

Concerted efforts and commitments are needed to solve the complex trade-offs involved in reducing the impact of aviation on the climate, according to new research. Non-CO2 emissions from aircraft - largely of nitrogen oxides, soot and water vapour – are known to add to global warming effects alongside the aviation sector’s other CO2 emissions. Soot triggers the formation of contrails and ‘contrail cirrus’, which are line-shaped clouds produced by aircraft engine exhaust. This causes an increase in high clouds that can warm the Earth’s atmosphere. In a comprehensive assessment ...

Statement Highlights: Intensive care management of cardiac arrest survivors is important and influences survival and neurological outcomes. This collaborative statement from a diverse group with expertise in post-cardiac arrest care identifies current knowledge gaps and provides guidance about care in topics where research and existing guidelines were not able to provide solid evidence. This statement calls for more research into neurological, cardiac, pulmonary, hematologic, infectious, gastrointestinal, endocrine and general critical care management after cardiac arrest. Embargoed until 4 a.m. CT / 5 a.m. ET Tuesday, ...

The Supply Chain Intelligence Institute Austria (ASCII) advocates for a revision of the EU Corporate Sustainable Due Diligence Directive (CS3D). The proposed amendments focus on direct monitoring of suppliers – instead of bilateral supply links – and the introduction of negative and positive lists to streamline due diligence processes, improving effectiveness and reducing costs for EU importers.   The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D), currently under negotiation by EU institutions with a potential adoption in 2024, aligns with international norms to cover both human rights and environmental ...

IOP Publishing (IOPP) is launching Sustainability Science and Technology, an interdisciplinary, open access journal dedicated to advancing sustainability through cutting-edge research in science, technology, and engineering. The new journal will bring together researchers from diverse disciplines across engineering, chemistry, physics, materials science and environmental science to address global challenges and contribute to a more sustainable future.  Sustainability Science and Technology sets itself apart by focussing on the critical importance of sustainable impact. ...

Tetrodotoxin, the neurotoxin that makes a blue-ringed octopus deadly, also protects Taricha newts — but we don’t understand how they produce it, or what purposes it serves for them. A first step to answering these questions is understanding whether different levels appear in males and females. In sexually reproducing animals, dimorphic traits such as color or canine tooth size can be key for survival and reproductive fitness. Investigating whether toxin production is a sexually dimorphic trait in newts gets us closer to understanding it. “It had long been considered that newts’ ...

Osaka, Japan – The global impact of the coronavirus pandemic has ignited a renewed focus on emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. Researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University are making great strides in combating pneumococcal pneumonia, one of the leading causes of respiratory deaths worldwide. Despite the existence of vaccines against pneumococcal infections such as otitis media, sinusitis, and meningitis, the prevalence of pneumococcal pneumonia remains high. Currently, around 100 new serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae have been identified, and ...

Image A new kind of "wire" for moving excitons, developed at the University of Michigan, could help enable a new class of devices, perhaps including room temperature quantum computers.  What's more, the team observed a dramatic violation of Einstein's relation, used to describe how particles spread out in space, and leveraged it to move excitons in much smaller packages than previously possible. "Nature uses excitons in photosynthesis. We use excitons in OLED displays and some LEDs and solar cells," said Parag Deotare, ...

Machine learning is now helping researchers analyze the makeup of unfamiliar cells, which could lead to more personalized medicine in the treatment of cancer and other serious diseases.   Researchers at the University of Waterloo developed GraphNovo, a new program that provides a more accurate understanding of the peptide sequences in cells. Peptides are chains of amino acids within cells and are building blocks as important and unique as DNA or RNA.  In a healthy person, the immune system can correctly identify the peptides of irregular or foreign cells, such as cancer cells or harmful bacteria, and then target those cells for destruction. For people whose immune system is ...

Adaptive optics (AO) is a technique used for real-time correction of phase aberrations by employing feedback to adjust the optical system. Polarization aberrations represent another significant type of distortion that can impact optical systems. Various factors, such as stressed optical elements, Fresnel effects, and polarizing effects in materials or biological tissues, can induce polarization aberrations. These aberrations affect both system resolution and the accuracy of vector information. Vectorial aberrations result from the ...

The global rise in ocular diseases, largely due to insufficient ophthalmic diagnostics and monitoring, has emphasized the need for better treatment methods. Pioneering developments in therapeutic and diagnostic contact lenses are now offering hope in treating these diseases. Cataracts, which cloud the lens of the eye, are a prime example, affecting 94 million people and leading to 10 million surgeries annually. A significant factor in the rise of cataracts and other ocular conditions, such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and photokeratitis, is excessive exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light. In response, a team of researchers at Khalifa University has ...

Surface functionalization via micro/nano structuring is not only a thriving research area inspired by bionics but also of great importance for various practical applications. The key to achieving various surface functions is the fabrication of surface micro/nano structures with controlled dimensions, hierarchies, and compositions, which is driving the continuous progress of micro/nano fabrication techniques. Researchers from the Laser Materials Processing Research Center at the School of Materials Science and Engineering of Tsinghua University, China, have spent years in developing laser-enabled fabrication ...

1 Overview A number of open source resources, in the form of curated datasets, web-based databases, stand-alone software, or library packages have been floating in various forms online. These codes are useful in computer science research works, and engineering practices. The application of these resources requires instructions. Traditional scientific publications usually focus on the algorithms, principles, theoretical proofs, benchmarking evaluations and comparisons that is in the background or in the generation process of these resources. The instructions, case studies, application examples and sample codes, which help users and other practitioners to utilize these ...

Particle accelerators hold great potential for semiconductor applications, medical imaging and therapy, and research in materials, energy and medicine. But conventional accelerators require plenty of elbow room — kilometers — making them expensive and limiting their presence to a handful of national labs and universities. Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin, several national laboratories, European universities and the Texas-based company TAU Systems Inc. have demonstrated a compact particle accelerator less than 20 meters long that produces ...

University of Birmingham Press Release  STRICTLY EMBARGOED UNTIL 00.01 Tuesday 28th November UK TIME/ 19.01 Monday 27th November EASTERN TIME   Experts from the University of Birmingham are calling for global cooling and cold chain to be considered as critical infrastructure as the planet continues to heat.   The report, The Hot Reality: Living in a +50°C World, comes as world leaders, businesses, scientists, and environmental agencies gather in Dubai for the start of COP 28.   The Hot Reality: Living in a +50°C World project is led by the Centre for Sustainable Cooling and the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling ...

Greater adherence to the World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research (WCRF/AICR) cancer prevention recommendations — which encourage a healthy lifestyle — is associated with a lower risk of all cancers combined and some individual cancers such as breast cancer. The findings are published in BMC Medicine. The 2018 WCRF/AICR cancer prevention recommendations aim to reduce the risk of cancer by encouraging individuals to maintain a healthy weight, be physically active, and eat a diet rich in wholegrains, vegetables, fruit, and beans, but low in highly processed foods, red and processed meat, sugar-sweetened drinks, and alcohol. John Mathers and ...

[Jerusalem, Israel] Professor Asaf Hellman and his research team at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School have unveiled new findings in the realm of methylation-directed regulatory networks. Their study sheds light on the mechanisms governing the activation and suppression of mutation-driven disease genes, particularly in cases like glioblastoma, offering insights into variations in disease expression among patients. This research has the potential to revolutionize disease research and clinical applications, paving the way for personalized medicine, diagnostic biomarkers, and improved patient care. Currently, 98% of individuals hospitalized ...