A new research paper published in the scientific journal Nature Conservation has uncovered concerning activities within South Africa's captive lion industry, shedding light on the urgent need for comprehensive governmental action. The study by World Animal Protection, conducted through direct interviews with workers at two closed-access lion facilities in South Africa’s North West Province, reveals disturbing practices. These include: The use of legal activities such as commercial captive lion breeding and canned hunting to mask involvement in the illegal international trade of lion and tiger bones. Animal welfare violations including ...

Researchers at the Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (VMBS) have discovered that parents who struggle with alcohol use disorders can pass along symptoms of early aging to their children, affecting them well into adulthood.  These accelerated aging effects — including high cholesterol, heart problems, arthritis, and early onset dementia — can be passed down from either mom or dad individually, but they become worse when both parents have an issue with alcohol abuse, especially in male offspring. “Scientists have wondered what causes children who grow up in homes where there is alcohol ...

An activity pattern in certain genes responsible for building proteins known as spleen tyrosine kinases can predict which melanoma patients are likely to have severe side effects from immunotherapy designed to treat the most deadly skin cancer, a new study shows. Led by researchers at NYU Langone Health and its Perlmutter Cancer Center, the latest experiments focused on checkpoint inhibitors, drugs that have in the last decade become a mainstay of treating melanoma. This form of skin cancer kills nearly 10,000 Americans annually. The drugs work by blocking molecules ...

WASHINGTON — Researchers have shown that a fluorescence detection system that doesn’t contain any lenses can provide highly sensitive detection of deadly microorganisms in drinking water. With further development, the new approach could provide a low-cost and easy-to-use way to monitor water quality in resource-limited settings such as developing countries or areas affected by disasters. It could also be useful when water safety results are needed quickly, such as for swimming events, a concern highlighted during the Paris Olympics. “In developing countries, unsafe water sources ...

For decades, researchers have worked to develop therapies that can prime the immune system to recognize and attack proteins on the surface of tumor cells. However, success has been limited due to the technological challenge of engineering therapies that provide specific enough “training” to the immune system to identify a given patient’s neoantigens. Now, investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, have evaluated an ...

WASHINGTON—Women with the common reproductive and metabolic condition polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) face a greater risk of developing bulimia, binge eating disorder and disordered eating, according to new research published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. PCOS affects roughly one in eight women. Women who have the condition face an increased risk of developing metabolic problems such as diabetes, reproductive issues such as infertility, and psychological issues including anxiety and depression. Women are diagnosed when they have at least two of the three ...

A Korean research team has presented the first universal design principles for solid-state batteries, signaling a paradigm shift in battery design research that previously lacked standard benchmarks. Dr. Jinsoo Kim from the Ulsan Advanced Energy Technology R&D Center of the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) and Professor Sung-Kyun Jung's research team from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) have jointly developed a design principles and a versatile design toolkit for implementing high-energy-density solid-state batteries and have completed performance verification. With ...

Nationally, falls remain the leading cause of both fatal and non-fatal injuries in older adults and are the leading cause of traumatic brain injury. In 2021, falls led to the deaths of 36,500 older adults in the United States and 3,805 older Floridians. While some studies have hypothesized that alcohol use contributed to these outcomes, there are few studies which have examined this issue.  As such, little is known about the association between the frequency of alcohol use and the severity of injuries sustained after a fall in older adults. A study by Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt College of Medicine and collaborators, is one of the first to examine the relationship ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug 8, 2024 --- Insilico Medicine ("Insilico"), a clinical-stage generative artificial intelligence (AI)-driven biotechnology company, today announced ISM6331, potential best-in-class pan-TEAD inhibitor, has received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Investigational New Drug (IND) clearance for the treatment of mesothelioma, following the grant of Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) in June 2024. It brings the total number of IND-approved molecules of Insilico to nine. Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that affects the mesothelium, a thin layer of tissue that covers most of the ...

A crowd or a flock of birds have different characteristics from those of atoms in a material, but when it comes to collective movement, the differences matter less than we might think. We can try to predict the behavior of humans, birds, or cells based on the same principles we use for particles. This is the finding of a new study published in the Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment, JSTAT, conducted by an international team that includes the collaboration of MIT in Boston and CNRS in France. The study, based on the physics ...

Experts provide clarity on key terms for urgent species recovery actions to support the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) is a landmark agreement ratified in 2022 by Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity that outlines ambitious goals to combat biodiversity decline. The Framework states outcomes for species to be achieved by 2050 in Goal A and establishes a range of targets to reduce pressures on biodiversity and halt biodiversity loss ...

As our climate changes and soil salinity increases in many agricultural areas, finding crops that can thrive in these challenging conditions is crucial. Cultivated tomatoes, while delicious, often struggle in salty soils. Their wild cousins, however, have evolved to survive in diverse and often harsh environments. A recent study delved into the genetic treasure trove of wild tomatoes to uncover secrets of salt tolerance that could be used to develop resilient crop varieties. A team of researchers focused on Solanum pimpinellifolium, the closest wild relative of our beloved cultivated tomato. These tiny, ...

Climate change is one of the most significant environmental challenges of present times, leading to extreme weather events, including droughts, forest fires, and floods. The primary driver for climate change is the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere due to human activities, which trap heat and raise Earth’s temperature. Aerosols (such as particulate matter, PM2.5) not only affect public health but also influence the Earth's climate by absorbing and scattering sunlight and altering cloud properties. Although future climate change predictions are being reported, it is possible that the impacts of climate change could be more severe than predicted. ...

According to the attention-based view, a firm’s actions and growth performance are directly influenced by its attentional allocation to specific issues. The consequences of organizational attention are reflected in the firm’s strategic decision-making and adaptability. However, existing literature is limited in its exploration of how a firm’s attentional uniqueness impacts its behavior and performance. Notably, attentional uniqueness refers to how the firm’s attentional allocation diverges from competitors in the same industry. To address the above-mentioned knowledge gap, Associate Professor Takumi ...

The deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA, the molecular system that carries the genetic information of living organisms, can transcribe and amplify information using its two helical strands. Creating such artificial molecular systems that match or surpass DNA in functionality is of great interest to scientists. Double-helical foldamers are one such molecular system.   Helical foldamers are a class of artificial molecules that fold into well-defined helical structures like helices found in proteins and nucleic acids. They have garnered considerable attention as stimuli-responsive switchable molecules, tuneable chiral materials, and cooperative supramolecular systems due to their chiral and ...

A saliva test can more accurately indicate the severity of recurrent respiratory infections in children than the standard blood test. If saliva contains too few broadly protective antibodies, a child is more likely to suffer from pneumonia episodes. This is reported by researchers from Radboudumc Amalia Children's Hospital and UMC Utrecht Wilhelmina Children's Hospital in the European Respiratory Journal. Saliva testing provides valuable information for treatment and is more comfortable for children.  About ...

Research Highlights: Researchers found repeated one-minute bursts of high-intensity interval training were more effective than traditional, moderate continuous exercise for improving the body’s aerobic fitness after a stroke. Fitness level improvements doubled in participants in the high-intensity interval training group compared to those in the moderate intensity exercise group. Researchers found the level of fitness changes in the high intensity interval training group were associated with improved survival and lower risk of stroke-related ...

Pathological abnormalities associated with motor neurone disease have been identified using a new technique developed at the University of Birmingham.  The method will help scientists better understand the changes in the brain that lead to motor neurone disease (MND) and could eventually yield insights that will help with the development of new treatments. The abnormalities were identified in a collaboration between the University of Birmingham and the University of Sheffield and published today [8 Aug] in Nature Communications.  Motor neurone disease, also known ...

Using zebrafish “Avatars”, an animal model developed by the Cancer Development and Innate Immune Evasion lab at the Champalimaud Foundation (CF), led by Rita Fior, Mayra Martínez-López – a former PhD student at the lab now working at the Universidad de las Américas in Quito, Ecuador – and colleagues studied the initial steps of the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine’s action on bladder cancer cells. Their results, which are published today (August 1, 2024) in the journal Disease Models and Mechanisms, show that macrophages – the first line of ...

August 8, 2024, Cleveland: New Cleveland Clinic research shows that consuming foods with erythritol, a popular artificial sweetener, increases risk of cardiovascular events such as heart attack and stroke. The findings, from a new intervention study in healthy volunteers, show erythritol made platelets (a type of blood cell) more active, which can raise the risk of blood clots. Sugar (glucose) did not have this effect.   Published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, the research adds to increasing evidence that erythritol may not be as safe as currently ...

Scientists have developed a new way of counting labelled proteins in living cells that could become a standard and valuable tool in the field of biomedical research. This powerful new technique, known as Protein-tag Degree of Labelling (ProDOL), provides a robust and versatile approach for precisely determining labelling efficiencies, the number of proteins that are labelled with fluorescent markers in living cells, in microscopy, a crucial aspect of protein quantification in biological research. The method ...

Since the industrial revolution, microbes have successfully colonized one novel type of habitat after another: for example marine oil spills, plastic floating in the oceans, industrial brownfields, and even the interior of the International Space Station. However, it turns out that one extreme environment harboring a specialized community of highly adapted microbes is much closer to home: inside microwaves. This finding has now been reported for the first time in a study in Frontiers in Microbiology by researchers from Spain. It’s not only important from the perspective of ...

The Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) today announced it is investing in a state-of-the-art cluster of over 100 NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs to enhance its computing infrastructure and scale up machine learning for academic research. The latest-generation GPU cluster specializes in training large language models for generative AI and machine learning. The Institute-funded, multi-million investment helps accelerate AI research in the public sphere at scale and consolidates ISTA as a European computational hotspot. In the generative artificial intelligence (AI) era, AI research and ...

AUGUSTA, Ga. (Aug. 8, 2024) – With a new $11.3 million Program Project grant from the National Institutes of Health, experts from the Vascular Biology Center at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University are working to better understand the underlying mechanisms of cardiovascular disease. “Blood vessels are critical for the transport of oxygen, nutrients, and immune cells and when they don’t function properly it not only impacts the function of the heart, but other organs such as the lung, eye, brain ...

A new joint study by RMIT and the University of Bristol has revealed secrets to the remarkably steady flight of kestrels and could inform future drone designs and flight control strategies.   Watch video: YouTube  Making drones safer and more stable in turbulent conditions, or in cities where wind gusts from tall buildings make flying more difficult, makes applications like parcel delivery, food delivery and environmental monitoring more feasible, more often.     The study conducted in RMIT’s Industrial Wind Tunnel facility – one of the largest of its kind in ...