PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A new approach to examining the effects of climate change on marine ecosystems may provide a more accurate understanding of climate change responses — and predictions for future consequences — according to a new paper co-authored by a Brown University biologist. The paper, published in the Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, highlights the interplay between the trend of climate warming and the fluctuations in local temperature. These two properties cause atypically warm events such as marine heatwaves to occur with ...

A subtype of CD8 T cells, which are classically known to promote immune system responses, may be in fact regulating the immune system by suppressing immune cells causing self-destructive responses leading to autoimmune disorders and organ graft rejection. A team led by researchers from the Department of Medicine and the Transplant Research Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, in collaboration with researchers from the Dana-Farber ...

any mammals, from domestic cats and dogs to giant pandas, use scent to communicate with each other. A new study from the University of California, Davis shows how domestic cats send signals to each other using odors derived from families of bacteria living in their anal glands. The work was published Nov. 8 in Scientific Reports. The study adds to a growing body of research on the relationship between microbes and odor in mammals, including domestic dogs, wild animals such as foxes, pandas and hyenas, and humans. Cats’ scent comes ...

The advent of whole genome sequencing technology has prompted an explosion in research into how genetics are associated with disease risk. But the vast majority of genetics research has been done on people of European ancestry, and genetics researchers have realized that in order to address health disparities, more needs to be done. In a new study, Georgia Tech researchers investigated whether 25 rare gene variants known to be associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) play a role in risk for African Americans. While the rare variant associations were recently discovered in individuals of European ancestry, ...

A new Kaiser Permanente physician peer support program designed to reduce burnout helped improve doctors’ well-being and had a positive impact on the culture of the medical departments that took part in the program, Kaiser Permanente researchers found.   The study, published November 1 in PLOS ONE, analyzed the impact of the Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) Peer Outreach Support Team (POST) program in 2 KPNC hospitals. POST is now active in 10 KPNC hospitals, and 3 more hospitals intend to launch POST programs over the next few months. Uniquely, the POST program allows for third-party referrals — ...

Even though they’re the largest animals on earth, whales remain difficult to track. So experts often turn to historical whaling data to inform current research. A dataset maintained by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) contains detailed information on commercial whale catches — more than 2.1 million records, predominantly from 1880 until the IWC banned whaling in 1986. Yet for researchers, distilling that data can prove its own challenge. A team at the University of Washington has created an online interactive map called WhaleVis, which lets whale researchers visualize ...

Social distancing when sick has become second nature to many of us in the past few years, but some sick animals appear to take a different approach. A new study of house finches led by Marissa Langager, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Science, uncovered a surprising result. Unlike other social animals who passively or actively isolate themselves when sick, this gregarious backyard bird species gravitates toward healthy flock mates when they are sick, even ...

Nov. 15, 2023 Media Contacts: Emily Gowdey-Backus, director of media relations Nancy Cicco, assistant media relations   The trillions of microorganisms living in gastrointestinal tracts may foretell diagnoses of debilitating diseases including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s   Microbiome may hold clues that could revolutionize diagnosis and treatment   Researchers at UMass Lowell’s Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences are exploring how the gut microbiome contributes to the risk of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. This research could lead to earlier detection and new treatments for people with those diseases, which ...

“Here we used the PS19 (P301S) mouse model of tauopathies to characterize longitudinal changes in behavioral, morphological, and transcriptomic levels.” BUFFALO, NY- November 15, 2023 – A new research paper was published on the cover of Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 15, Issue 21, entitled, “Longitudinal characterization of behavioral, morphological and transcriptomic changes in a tauopathy mouse model.” Neurodegenerative ...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Two Sandia National Laboratories employees will soon join the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics class of 2024 as associate fellows. “This distinguished group of professionals has made significant and lasting contributions to the aerospace profession,” said AIAA President and Sandia Deputy Laboratories Director Laura McGill. “They exemplify expertise and dedication to excellence in advancing their specific technical disciplines. They are truly shaping the future of aerospace, and we are proud of their achievements.” Michael Ross Michael Ross was recognized for his work in ...

A five-year, $3.9 million grant to study the effects of integrated palliative care on health service outcomes and disparities in Parkinson’s disease and Parkinson’s disease dementia has been awarded to UTHealth Houston and other institutions by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health. As part of the grant, Adriana Pérez, PhD, professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Data Science with UTHealth Houston School of Public Health ...

Macrophages, a type of white blood cell that can destroy invading pathogens, have an innate ability to infiltrate tumor cells, making them a potentially important tool in treatments that use transplanted cells to fight disease, known as cell therapy.  In the lab, macrophages show a lot of promise in treating cancer but so far, clinical trials have been a disappointment and biologists are trying to figure out why. But what if it’s not a biological problem? In a recent paper, researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied ...

All aquatic species in the river mouths flowing into the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean are contaminated with microplastics, with molluscs being the most affected due to their ability to filter water. Rivers are one of the main sources of pollution by microplastics (5 to 0.0001 mm in size) and nanoplastics (smaller than 0.0001mm) in the oceans. Estuaries, as transition zones between rivers and the sea, are major hotspots for the accumulation of these particles, which are retained in sediments. They pose a threat to aquatic ecosystems given their ability to capture harmful chemicals from the surrounding environment, ...

MINNEAPOLIS – With the rise of new drugs that can target the amyloid-beta plaques in the brain that are an early sign of Alzheimer’s disease, new ways are needed to determine whether memory loss and thinking problems are due to Alzheimer’s disease or another neurodegenerative disorder. A new study published in the November 15, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, shows that shrinkage in the hippocampus area of the brain is associated with cognitive decline, even in people who don’t have amyloid plaques in the brain. The hippocampus plays a role in memory. “These results suggest ...

Researchers with the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group (ECOG-ACRIN) and PrECOG, LLC, will present six oral and three poster presentations at the 65th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Meeting & Exposition, occurring in San Diego, California and virtually December 9-12, 2023. The presentations focus on treatments for acute leukemias and lymphomas.   Among the data are the promising results of the phase 2 PrE0405 trial, which evaluated bendamustine, rituximab, and venetoclax for the initial treatment of mantle cell lymphoma in older patients. Other ...

Embargoed: Not for Release Until 2:00 pm U.S. Eastern Time Wednesday, 15 November 2023 Stroke is a leading cause of long-term disability worldwide. Each year more than 15 million people worldwide have strokes, and three-quarters of stroke survivors will experience impairment, weakness and paralysis in their arms and hands. Many stroke survivors rely on their stronger arm to complete daily tasks, from carrying groceries to combing their hair, even when the weaker arm has the potential to improve. Breaking this habit, known as “arm nonuse” or “learned nonuse,” can improve strength and prevent injury. But, determining how much ...

The discovery of 27 avian footprints on the southern Australia coast — dating back to the Early Cretaceous when Australia was still connected to Antarctica — opens another window onto early avian evolution and possible migratory behavior. PLOS ONE published the discovery of some of the oldest, positively identified bird tracks in the Southern Hemisphere, dated to between 120 million and 128 million years ago. “Most of the bird tracks and body fossils dating as far back as the Early Cretaceous are from the Northern Hemisphere, particularly from Asia,” says Anthony Martin, first ...

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 15, 2023) — One University of Kentucky researcher is working to develop new techniques for radiation treatment to improve survival rates of patients with a specific type of cancer. Caigang Zhu, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the UK Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering. He is also a member of the Molecular and Cellular Oncology Research Program at the UK Markey Cancer Center. The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research of ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The U.S. Department of Agriculture today released its new Plant Hardiness Zone Map, the national standard by which gardeners can determine which plants are most likely to survive the coldest winter temperatures at a certain location. The USDA describes the latest map, jointly developed by Oregon State University’s PRISM Climate Group and the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, as the most accurate and detailed it has ever released. PRISM, part of the OSU College of Engineering, stands for Parameter-elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model. The previous version of the plant hardiness map, also based ...

Neuroscientists at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the Catholic University, Rome, and the Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS have genetically modified a molecule, the protein LIMK1, which is normally active in the brain, with a key role in memory. They added a "molecular switch" that is activated by administering a drug, rapamycin, known for its several anti-aging effects on the brain. This is the result of a study published in the journal Science Advances, which involves the Catholic ...

New near-complete skeleton of a bird-like dinosaur is found in a position which suggests it slept like modern birds ### Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0293801 Article Title: A new alvarezsaurid dinosaur (Theropoda, Alvarezsauria) from the Upper Cretaceous Baruungoyot Formation of Mongolia provides insights for bird-like sleeping behavior in non-avian dinosaurs Author Countries: Japan, Mongolia Funding: Funding for this project was granted by Research Fellowships from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS 21J12938) (to KK) and Ami Koshimizu (Endless Glory Office Restart Co., Ltd.) (to KK). The funders had ...

New dates provide detailed insights into the timing of events in the ancient city of Gezer, according to a study published November 15, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Lyndelle Webster of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and colleagues. Gezer is an ancient southern Levantine city, well known from Egyptian, Assyrian, and Biblical texts and associated with stories of power struggles and significant historical figures. It is also a rich archaeological site with abundant Bronze Age and Iron Age remains and with great potential for research into the daily lives of its denizens. Recent excavations at the site have uncovered a continuous stratigraphic ...

A third of users on a popular breast cancer support forum describe using peer-recommended or self-discovered techniques to improve sexual functioning, according to a study published November 15, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Christiana von Hippel from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, USA, and colleagues. Over 75 percent of breast cancer survivors describe experiencing some degree of sexual dysfunction. Commonly prescribed interventions such as vaginal lubricants or numbing creams are only moderately ...

Early birds had made it to southern polar environments by 120 million years ago, according to a study published November 15, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Anthony Martin of Emory University, USA and colleagues. Cretaceous bird fossils are abundant and diverse in northern continents, but extremely rare in southern continents, regions that were once part of the landmass of Gondwana. This presents a challenge for paleontologists trying to understand the distribution of early birds. In this study, Martin and colleagues report ...

Study Title: Targeting DNA methylation and B7-H3 in RB1-deficient and neuroendocrine prostate cancer Publication: Science Translational Medicine [10.1126/scitranslmed.adf6732] Dana-Farber Cancer Institute author: Himisha Beltran, MD Summary: Epigenetic changes can cause prostate cancer to resist treatment by switching genes on or off. One epigenetic mechanism tags genes with DNA methylation marks. This process is mediated by molecules called DNA methyltransferases. These tags can alter gene expression in ways that promote tumors to grow and transition ...