Researchers have developed a new genomic technique that can track the spread of multiple superbugs in a hospital simultaneously, which could help prevent and manage common hospital infections quicker and more effectively than ever before. The proof-of-concept study, from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the University of Oslo, Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo in Italy, and collaborators, details a new deep sequencing approach that captures all the common infectious bacteria in a hospital at once. Current methods culture and sequence all pathogens separately which takes longer and requires more work.   Published ...

Meat consumption, particularly consumption of processed meat and unprocessed red meat, is associated with a higher type 2 diabetes risk, an analysis of data from 1.97 million participants, published today in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, has found. Global meat production has increased rapidly in recent decades and meat consumption exceeds dietary guidelines in many countries.  Earlier research indicated that higher intakes of processed meat and unprocessed red meat are associated with an elevated risk of type 2 diabetes, but the results have been variable and not conclusive. Poultry ...

Australia’s environmental laws are failing to stop high rates of tree clearing to make way for agriculture, development and mining, according to University of Queensland research. PhD candidate Hannah Thomas from UQ’s School of the Environment led a team which used satellite mapping and land clearing data to analyse vegetation loss across northern Australia, including Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia. “We mapped clearing greater than 20 hectares and then investigated which national or state and territory laws were likely to apply,” Ms Thomas said. “Of the 1.5 million hectares ...

A study in mice has found that the bacteria Bifidobacterium breve in the mother’s gut during pregnancy supports healthy brain development in the fetus. Researchers have compared the development of the fetal brain in mice whose mothers had no bacteria in their gut, to those whose mothers were given Bifidobacterium breve orally during pregnancy, but had no other bacteria in their gut. Nutrient transport to the brain increased in fetuses of mothers given Bifidobacterium breve, and beneficial changes were also seen in other cell processes relating to growth. Bifidobacterium breve is a ‘good bacteria’ that occurs naturally in our ...

In a study published today in Royal Society Open Science, researchers at the Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP) at UH Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) and Alaska Whale Foundation (AWF) consider a new designation of the humpback whales they study: tool wielders. Researchers have known that humpback whales create “bubble-nets” to hunt, but they have learned that the animals don’t just create the bubble-nets; they manipulate this unique tool in a variety of ways to maximize their food intake in Alaskan feeding grounds. This novel research demystifies a behavior key to the whales’ survival and offers a compelling case for including humpbacks among the rare ...

In 2023, federally sponsored research at The University of Texas at Arlington accounted for $77 million in expenditures, with about $40.7 million spent on research-related goods and services in Texas. That more than doubles the total for 2022, when federally sponsored research at UTA contributed $38 million to the economy. The $77 million is a portion of UTA’s $122 million in total research expenditures from all sources last year. This number includes federally sponsored research awards as well as those from local and state governments, private institutions, and other sources. Overall, UT Arlington and its 270,000 alumni contribute $29 billion ...

Scientists have found a new way to predict how proteins change their shape when they function, which is important for understanding how they work in living systems. While recent artificial intelligence (AI) technology has made it possible to predict what proteins look like in their resting state, figuring out how they move is still challenging because there is not enough direct data from experiments on protein motions to train the neural networks. In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Aug.20, ...

Reston, VA (August 20, 2024) -- A new fluorescent imaging probe can for the first time objectively and non-invasively measure loss of smell, clinically known as anosmia. Targeting the olfactory nerve, the new tool has potential to eliminate biopsies used to diagnose certain anosmia conditions and to aid in the development of therapeutic interventions. This research was published in the August issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. Research shows that an estimated 13.3 million adults in the United States have a vast range of smell disorders and that ...

New York, NY—August 20, 2024—Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in patients suffering from lupus, an autoimmune disease in which our immune system attacks our own tissues and organs, the heart, blood, lung, joints, brain, and skin. Lupus myocarditis--inflammation of the heart muscle-- can be very serious because the inflammation alters the regularity of the rhythm and strength of the heartbeat. However, the mechanisms underlying this complex disease are poorly understood and difficult to study. A long-standing question about lupus is why some patients develop myocarditis while others remain unaffected. And why the clinical manifestations of affected ...

DURHAM, N.C. – An estimated one life was saved for every 17 times an extreme risk protection order removed guns from people who presented a risk of harming themselves or others, according to a Duke Health-led analysis of the laws in four states. Extreme risk protection orders -- known as ERPOs or “red flag laws" -- are civil court orders that temporarily prevent people from accessing firearms after a judge determines that they pose an imminent risk of harming themselves or others. Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have enacted ERPO laws, mostly in ...

More than 23 million Americans who were granted Medicaid coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic lost their coverage starting in March 2023 after the pandemic was declared no longer a public health emergency. Many likely will not successfully re-enroll on their own given Medicaid’s administrative burden—the frustrations and challenges people often encounter in seeking or complying with coverage. Now, a study of the so-called Medicaid Great Unwinding by Dr. Simon F. Haeder with the Texas A&M University School of Public Health, ...

Corporate Cup, lunchtime yoga, or even ‘walk and talks’, organisations come up with all sorts of wellness initiatives to encourage people to be more active in the workplace. But before you duck and hide, new research shows that all it takes is 15 minutes and a touch of gamification to put you on the path to success.   Assessing results from 11,575 participants, across 73 Australian, New Zealand, and UK companies, University of South Australia researchers found that a gamified workplace wellness program – the 15 Minute Challenge* - leads to substantial increases in physical activity levels, with 95% of participants meeting (36%) or exceeding (59%) ...

August 20, 2024, Mountain View, CA –The SETI Institute announced that Dr. Nadia Drake is joining the SETI Institute's Board of Directors as an observer. The SETI Institute's board guides its strategic direction, finances, and various committees. As a journalist, Drake will be an active, non-voting member, bringing her broad expertise to the team. "I am thrilled by this appointment to the SETI Institute's board, which comes at an exciting time for the SETI Institute and for the search for life beyond Earth," said Drake. "For most of my career as a science journalist, I've covered astrobiology ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A sweeping study of U.S. youth sports participation over the past 60 years found that there has been a significant increase over time in kids playing organized sports – but particularly among more privileged, educated families. A national survey found that about 70% of Americans born in the ’90s and reaching age 18 by 2015-16 said they took part in organized sports through recreational, school, or club teams. This finding showed a rather steady increase in organized sports participation across generations. Slightly more than half of those ...

Video available here.  In an effort to reduce the environmental impact of carbon dioxide emissions, a University of Central Florida researcher has developed a new technology that captures carbon dioxide and outputs useful fuels and chemicals. Yang Yang, an associate professor in UCF’s NanoScience Technology Center, created an innovative device that captures carbon dioxide with a microsurface comprised of a tin oxide film and fluorine layer. The device then extracts gaseous carbon dioxide via a bubbling electrode and selectively converts ...

Opportunistic pathogens are typically benign microbes that can sometimes cause infections in individuals with weakened immune systems or when they gain access to sterile areas of the body. Unlike obligate pathogens, opportunistic pathogens do not depend on host infection or transmission for survival, making it difficult to determine the factors driving the evolution of virulence in these microbes. Nevertheless, given their potential to cause severe infections in immunocompromised patients and the increasing prevalence ...

While the U.S. federal government has clean energy targets, they are not binding. Most economically developed countries have mandatory policies designed to bolster renewable electricity production. Because the U.S. lacks an enforceable federal mandate for renewable electricity, individual states are left to develop their own regulations.  Marilyn Brown, Regents’ and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in Georgia Tech’s School of Public Policy; Shan Zhou, an assistant professor at Purdue University and Georgia Tech Ph.D. alumna; and Barry Solomon, a professor emeritus of environmental policy at Michigan Technological University, investigated ...

Sophia Antipolis, 20 August 2024: It’s not long before the global cardiology community converges in London for the European Society of Cardiology (ESC)’s annual gathering, unveiling the latest practice-changing science.  The ESC Press Conference Schedule is now available, detailing the nine press conferences that will take place from Thursday 29 August to Sunday 1 September, and can be accessed in person or online. Accredited journalists will also be able to access embargoed press materials in the digital press area from Thursday 22 August.  Join triallists and ESC spokespersons for eight press conferences on the Hot ...

To evade the human host’s immune response, SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, uses the machinery of defense cells to induce the expression of unproductive isoforms of key antiviral genes – variant forms of genes that result from disrupted splicing or transcription processes and do not code for functional (protective) proteins. This is a key finding of a study conducted by researchers at the Albert Einstein Jewish Brazilian Hospital (HIAE), the University of São Paulo (USP) and the ...

Irvine, Calif., Aug. 20, 2024 — A team of researchers led by the University of California, Irvine has discovered that an antioxidant found in rosemary extract can reduce volitional intakes of cocaine by moderating the brain’s reward response, offering a new therapeutic target for treating addiction.   The study, recently published online in the journal Neuron, describes team members’ focus on a region of the brain called the globus pallidus externus, which acts as a gatekeeper that regulates how we react to cocaine. ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Researchers in Purdue University’s colleges of Agriculture and Science have received an additional $95,000 from the Trask Innovation Fund to develop patent-pending drought-resistant soybean plants and novel arthritis treatments. The fund is managed by the Purdue Innovates Incubator, which provides programming for the Purdue University community to ideate, refine and support their solutions. Funding recipients can receive up to $50,000 for their initial project; ...

AUSTIN, Texas — During the past decade, auditors have found a booming new business: reviewing reports on companies’ environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities. ESG reporting among S&P 500 companies grew 80% from 2010 to 2020, with nearly half the companies hiring auditors to give seals of approval. But while ESG reporting brings new opportunities to auditors, it can also bring new headaches, according to a new study from Texas McCombs. Test subjects who engaged auditors to review their ESG reports often pressured them to be more lenient on their financial reports — and auditors ...

August 20, 2024 — Among patients undergoing lumbar spinal fusion, the presence of Modic changes is associated with differences in microbial diversity and metabolites in the lumbar cartilaginous endplates (LCEPs), reports a study in The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.  "These findings suggest that changes in the microbiota may disrupt unsaturated fatty acid metabolism within the LCEP microenvironment, potentially influencing the onset and progression of Modic changes [MCs]," according to the new research ...

Atul Malhotra, MD, Peter C. Farrell Presidential Endowed Chair in Pulmonary Medicine at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and pulmonologist at UC San Diego Health, has been named recipient of the 2024 Sleep and Respiratory Neurobiology Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Thoracic Society. The award is given annually to honor the career of an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the field of sleep or respiratory neurobiology in terms of both scientific and scholarly advances, as well as in mentoring, teaching and advocacy to advance public health. Recipients are recognized for achievement in scholarship over the course of an entire ...

Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, have used artificial intelligence tools to accelerate the understanding of the risk of specific cardiac arrhythmias when various parts of the heart are exposed to different thresholds of radiation as part of a treatment plan for lung cancer. Their results are published in JACC: CardioOncology. “Radiation exposure to the heart during lung cancer treatment can have very serious and immediate effects on a patient’s cardiovascular ...