The U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory has named Sean Jones as deputy laboratory director for science and technology. Jones will begin his new role on October 9, serving as Argonne’s senior science strategist, advisor and chief research officer.  Jones will join Argonne from the National Science Foundation (NSF). In his current role as Assistant Director of the NSF’s Mathematical and Physical Sciences directorate, he oversees a $1.86 billion portfolio that includes five science divisions, domestic and international research facilities, and ...

Julie Carrier, professor and head of the University of Tennessee Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, was awarded the James R. and Karen A. Gilley Academic Leadership Award during the annual international meeting of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) in July. The award was given in recognition of Carrier’s exceptional leadership as department head as well as her ongoing dedication to furthering the UT Institute of Agriculture’s mission to provide research and extension ...

PITTSBURGH, Aug. 17, 2023 – Patients with cancer who live in rural Pennsylvania counties appear to know that they may have better outcomes if they receive their cancer surgery at a hospital that performs a high volume of those surgeries, but still opt for lower volume hospitals closer to home when their cancer is likely less complex, according to a new analysis published today in JCO Oncology Practice by health policy scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. With a shortage of experienced surgeons in rural America and rural ...

Gut microbiome variation associated with race and ethnicity arises after three months of age and persists through childhood, according to a new study published August 17th in the open access journal PLOS Biology by Elizabeth K. Mallott of Washington University in St. Louis, US, Seth Bordenstein of Pennsylvania State University, US, and colleagues. Human microbiome variation has been linked to the incidence, prevalence and mortality of many diseases and is known to associate with race and ethnicity in the United States. However, in this context race and ethnicity are considered proxies for inequitable exposure to social and environmental determinants of health due to structural racism. ...

Environmental regulators and other organizations should do more scientific experimentation to inform natural resource policy, according to an international group of economists that includes University of Wyoming researchers. In a new paper in the prestigious journal Science, the economists say more frequent use of up-front experiments would result in more effective environmental policymaking in areas ranging from pollution control to timber harvesting across the world. “Although formal experimentation is a cornerstone of science and is increasingly embedded in nonenvironmental social programs, it is virtually absent in environmental ...

The city of Gatineau is planning a tramway network that will link up with Ottawa, where the Light Rail Transit (LRT) continues to be bogged down by major mishaps. With Montreal’s new Réseau express métropolitain (REM) light transit system experiencing its own hiccups to start, how can cities looking to incorporate mass transport systems successfully launch such endeavors while avoiding project failures and years of misfortune? New research from a University of Ottawa professor suggests project leaders not overlook the “F” word. Telfer School of Management professor Lavagnon Ika found a lack of full appreciation ...

Almost 66 million years ago, an asteroid struck the Earth, killing all non-avian dinosaurs and allowing mammals to dominate. But just how did we evolve from rat-like creatures running between the feet of dinosaurs to take over their ecological niches? Dr. Kendra Chritz, assistant professor in the UBC department of earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences, aims to find out. Dr. Chritz is co-leading a new multi-million-dollar research project to learn how ecosystems and organisms recover after a catastrophic, climate-changing event. She explains in this Q&A that clues may lie in the fossilized teeth of mammals. Why don’t we know much about how mammals ...

Scientists have discovered an additional potential cause of the genetic mutations that result in rare conditions such as Huntington’s disease (HD). The neurodegenerative diseases, which also include most spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs), are known to be caused by an expansion in the CAG (cytosine-adenine-guanine) repeats within a gene that in turn leads to an expanded polyglutamine (polyQ) tract in a protein. Such diseases are inherited, given that the expansion of CAG repeats in a gene can be passed down the generations. Previously, it had been thought the damage in these genetic diseases was caused solely by increased protein aggregate toxicity. However, ...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Current methods can vastly overestimate the rates that malaria parasites are multiplying in an infected person’s blood, which has important implications for determining how harmful they could be to a host, according to a new report. The findings also have consequences for understanding the evolution of traits that lead to drug resistance, how quickly a parasite might spread through a population, and for evaluating the effectiveness of new vaccines. The study, “Extraordinary Parasite Multiplication Rates in ...

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a leading cause of death in the countries where it is practised, with over 44,000 additional women and young girls dying each year, a new study reveals. FGM accounts for more deaths in these countries than any cause other than enteric infections – usually resulting from consuming contaminated food or water – respiratory infections, or malaria and remains legal in five of the 28 countries where it is most practiced. Researchers are calling for FGM to be made illegal Mali, Malawi, Chad, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, given that legal change can lead to cultural change. They also say that efforts must be ...

While for physical systems in equilibrium, thermodynamics is an invaluable tool to make predictions about their state and behaviour without needing access to many details, finding similarly general and concise descriptions of non-equilibrium systems is an open challenge. A paradigmatic example of non-equilibrium systems are turbulent systems, which are ubiquitous both in natural and synthetic settings, from blood flow to airplanes. Especially wave turbulence is known to be a very difficult problem, challenging to calculate and not easy to measure, as waves of so many different wavelengths are involved. Now scientists based at the University ...

(MEMPHIS, Tenn. – August 17, 2023) St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists, in collaboration with the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) Limited, found that immune cells present in people months before influenza (flu) infection could more accurately predict if an individual would develop symptoms than current methods which primarily rely on antibody levels. The study found certain immune cells were associated with increased protection, while other immune cells were associated with increased susceptibility to developing symptoms after catching ...

Ann Arbor, August 17, 2023 – According to the results of a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier, exposure to interpersonal violence throughout childhood or adulthood increases an individual’s chance of developing adult-onset diabetes by more than 20%. Data showed the risk level is similar among adult males and females and lower income Black and White Americans. Lead investigator Maureen Sanderson, PhD, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Meharry Medical College, explained, “While previous research has linked exposure to interpersonal violence with a higher risk for developing ...

Chandra Mohan, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Endowed Professor of biomedical engineering, is reporting the first use of the powerful imaging mass cytometry (IMC) to examine the kidneys of patients with lupus (systemic lupus erythematosus), an autoimmune disease that can affect multiple organs and become fatal, and to diagnose lupus nephritis (LN) in those patients.   LN is a severe inflammation of the kidneys and a major cause of death in lupus patients. Up to 60% of SLE patients will develop renal symptoms with 5–20% of those patients progressing to end stage kidney disease within 10 years.  IMC can showcase ...

Engineers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory are collaborating on nine projects awarded to universities under the DOE’s Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP) and Integrated Research Projects.   The projects were selected as part of DOE’s commitment to investing in nuclear energy technologies, universities and the development of the next generation of researchers and scientists. These projects will play a vital role in advancing nuclear technology, supporting early career faculty research activities and fostering student innovation at Argonne ...

SEATTLE – AUGUST 17, 2023 – The Medicaid expansion under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act resulted in a 19% annual increase in Medicaid-insured cancer patients participating in publicly funded clinical trials, according to researchers from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, the SWOG Statistics and Data Management Center and Columbia University. Published in JAMA Oncology, the study explored the impact of Medicaid expansion in 2014 and 2015 on cancer clinical trial participation. Researchers found that the 19% annual increase, compounded over time, resulted in 52% more patients with Medicaid insurance participating ...

Who’s responsible for upholding research integrity, mitigating misinformation or disinformation and increasing trust in research? Everyone – even those reporting on research – says a new article published by leading research integrity experts. In their paper published in the journal Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics, Dr Leslie McIntosh (Vice President Research Integrity, Digital Science) and Ms Cynthia Hudson Vitale (Director, Science Policy and Scholarship, Association of Research Libraries) call for improved policies and worldwide coordination between funding bodies, publishers, academic institutions, scholarly ...

UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA   New UCF Project Examines Key Role Soils Play in Keeping the Planet Cool The research, funded by a grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, will examine a method to keep carbon from escaping soils and trapping heat in Earth’s atmosphere. ORLANDO, Aug.17, 2023 – A new project from the University of Central Florida is looking to the soils for a way to cool the skies. Funded by a nearly $750,000 grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the research will examine a method to keep carbon from escaping soils and ...

August 17, 2023 Rotman Professors and PhD Students Honoured at Academic Conferences Toronto – Faculty and doctoral students at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management were honoured at recent academic conferences for their research and contributions. At the annual meeting of the American Accounting Association last week in Denver, Jee-Eun Shin, an assistant professor of accounting, received the Best Early Career Researcher in Management Accounting Award sponsored by the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants. ...

“Should I be taking a probiotic?” is a question that Maggie Stanislawski, PhD, assistant professor in the University of Colorado Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI), gets asked often.   The answer is complicated. Every person’s gut microbiome is unique, and many probiotic supplements sold in grocery stores may not effectively bolster gut health for everyone, she says. The researcher, who specializes in the role of the gut microbiome in obesity and cardiometabolic disease, instead points to the importance ...

The largest ever study of the genetics of the brain – encompassing some 36,000 brain scans – has identified more than 4,000 genetic variants linked to brain structure. The results of the study, led by researchers at the University of Cambridge, are published in Nature Genetics today. Our brains are very complex organs, with huge variety between individuals in terms of the overall volume of the brain, how it is folded and how thick these folds are. Little is known about how our genetic make-up shapes the development of the brain. To answer this question, a team led by researchers at the Autism Research ...

August 17, 2023—(BRONX, NY)—Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have found that the virus responsible for chikungunya fever can spread directly from cell to cell—perhaps solving the longstanding mystery of how the virus, now emerging as a major health threat, can manage to escape antibodies circulating in the bloodstream. The findings, published today in Nature Microbiology, could help in developing effective vaccines or treatments for chikungunya fever, a debilitating and increasingly common mosquito-borne disease. A Possible Explanation ...

A research team co-led by UCLA investigators has shown that an immunotherapy drug combination can be an effective second-line therapy for patients with an aggressive and deadly type of melanoma that is resistant to the widely used immunotherapy drugs known as PD-1 inhibitors. In clinical trials, the investigators found that the combination therapy can extend the amount of time patients live without their cancer worsening, known as progression-free survival, and helps overcome resistance to prior immunotherapies, allowing more patients to benefit from the treatment. The ...

Researchers led by Genshiro Sunagawa at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR) in Japan have shown that an animal’s stem cells possess the same level of cold resistance as the animal itself. Published August 17 in Cell Reports, the study focuses on mice with different hibernation-like characteristics, showing that those with the best resistance to cold temperatures have stems cells that generate energy differently than others. Beyond these immediate findings, the study establishes mouse stem cells as a practical model ...

To control our behaviour, the brain must be able to form associations. This involves, for example, associating a neutral external stimulus with a consequence following the stimulus (e.g., the hotplate glows red - you can burn your hand).  In this way, the brain learns what the implication of our handling of the first stimulus are. Associative learning is the basis for forming neural connections and gives stimuli their motivational force. It is essentially controlled by a brain region called the dopaminergic midbrain. This region ...