Asian Americans are among the fastest growing populations in the U.S. but are significantly underrepresented in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) research. This means there is a significant knowledge gap of ADRD in this particular group at a time when the global Asian population is rapidly aging and the burden of ADRD will likely mirror this growth. Thanks to a new award, the Keck School of Medicine of USC’s Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute (Stevens INI) is perfectly poised to help bridge the gap.  Professor of ...

New Haven, Conn. — Music can take on many forms in cultures across the globe, but Yale researchers have found in a new study that some themes are universally recognizable by people everywhere with one notable exception — love songs. “All around the world, people sing in similar ways,” said senior author Samuel Mehr, who splits his time between the Yale Child Study Center, where he is an assistant professor adjunct, and the University of Auckland, where he is senior lecturer in psychology. “Music is deeply rooted in human social interaction.” For ...

More will soon be known about neurodiversity in engineering students, thanks to funding from the National Science Foundation and the efforts of Utah State University College of Engineering Assistant Professor Marissa Tsugawa. Tsugawa, along with collaborators from USU and Minnesota State University, received $373,508 in funding for their research in identifying emancipatory language and capturing neurodivergent narratives. “The term neurodivergent refers to a person with a brain that functions significantly different from the societal norm, such as someone with ADHD or autism,” Tsugawa said. “The term is used to celebrate, ...

September 5, 2023-- Racial and ethnic inequities in diabetes have been established following gestational diabetes, but these inequities are substantial and have been an overlooked facet of maternal health equity, according to a new study by epidemiologist Teresa Janevic, PhD, associate professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Until now there was limited research on racial and ethnic disparities in type 2 diabetes after gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). The findings are published online in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology. “Very few studies ...

Engineers at the University of Cincinnati have developed a new device that can warn consumers about early risks of tooth decay from diseases such as gingivitis and periodontitis. Gingivitis, the earliest form of gum disease, is caused by bacteria. But not just any bacteria. The problem for researchers was getting a device to single out the particular type responsible for the disease, said Andrew Steckl, an Ohio Eminent Scholar and distinguished research professor in UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science. “It’s been quite the challenge to get to the point where we can detect this toxin created by the bacteria ...

INDIANAPOLIS—Indiana University School of Medicine Department of Pathology is launching a new Division of Computational Pathology and a Research Center for Federated Learning in Precision Medicine. Both will be led by Spyridon Bakas, PhD, an internationally recognized computational researcher who brings ten years of experience and NIH grant funding to this growing field that combines artificial intelligence and medicine. “Computational pathology is a growing area of medicine around the world,” Bakas said. “The idea is to leverage information that exists within tissue slides ...

The modern world is filled with synthetic polymers, long-chained molecules designed by scientists to fill all manner of applications. Researchers at FAMU-FSU College of Engineering have developed two closely related polymers that respond differently to high and low temperature thresholds, despite their similar design. The polymer pair could be used in applications in medicine, protein synthesis, protective coatings and other fields. Their work is published in Macromolecules. “Typically, in order to have one thermal behavior, we have to prepare a polymer for that specific application, and if you ...

A study at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center aims to develop a new way to treat ischemic stroke, a leading cause of death in adults worldwide. The study is funded by a $1,155,000 translational grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health. Jianxiong Jiang, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, and Jiawang Liu, PhD, director of the Medicinal Chemistry ...

A new study by University of Maryland Economist Louis Preonas provides empirical evidence that railroads are likely to cut transportation prices to prop up coal-fired plants if U.S. climate policies further disadvantage coal in favor of less carbon-intensive energy sources. One strategy being considered to help reduce the country’s contribution to global climate change is a tax or fee on greenhouse gas emissions by coal-burning power plants. The hope is that such fees will reduce competitiveness of coal-fired energy and consumers will chose lower-emission options at a competitive cost. The new study, published September 7, 2023, in The ...

New York, NY (September 7, 2023)—Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have identified the structure of a special transporter found in red blood cells and how it interacts with drugs.  Details on the findings, which were reported in the September 7 issue of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology [DOI: 10.1038/s41594-023-01085-6], could lead to the development of more targeted medicines. The research team, led by Daniel Wacker, PhD, Bin Zhang, PhD, and Avner Schlessinger, PhD, found that this transporter facilitates ...

Altaf Saadi, MD, MSc, principal investigator of the Neurodisparities & Health Justice Lab in the Department of Neurology at Mass General and an assistant professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, is lead author of a new study in the Journal of Head Trauma and Rehabilitation, Examining the Association Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Lifetime History of Head or Neck Injury or Concussion in Children From the United States.  What Question Were You Investigating? Is there an association between adverse childhood experiences ...

A new report by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) presents major findings on the gravity of impacts from invasive alien species on our planet. Researchers found more than 37,000 alien species have been introduced by human activities over the centuries, and this conservative estimate is rising at unprecedented rates. Additionally, more than 3,500 of these are harmful invasive alien species, impacting humans, animals and plants. Dozens of international biodiversity ...

When Richard O’Neil, Ph.D., joined MUSC Hollings Cancer Center two years ago, he knew that he wanted to continue finding ways to make CAR-T-cell therapy easier on patients. What he didn’t expect was that a side project – worked on by Megan Tennant, a graduate student in his lab, as a way to keep busy while a key piece of equipment was being serviced – would potentially open up this treatment beyond the world of cancer. “I don't think that either of us expected that first initial experiment to work,” Tennant said. “But when we saw how well it worked and really started to conceptualize where this could go and how important ...

Every year on the 4th of July, fireworks cause cause a precipitous increase of wildfire ignitions in the United States (U.S.). This human-environmental phenomenon is noteworthy and highlights the impact of American culture on wildfire activity in the U.S. In other regions of the world, research has increasingly shown that human culture impacts fire activity, with weekly cycles of fire activity reflecting the local structures of workweeks and the timing of religious days of rest  (e.g., Saturdays and Sundays). Although 4th of July peak in wildfire igntions has ...

Analysis of data from more than 1 million Danish inpatients identifies nearly 4,000 drug pairings that are associated with more frequent dosage adjustments when prescribed together—potentially hinting at previously undiscovered drug interactions. Søren Brunak of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS Digital Health. In some cases, especially among elderly populations, a person may be prescribed several different medications at once in order to treat one or multiple health conditions—a phenomenon known as polypharmacy. Polypharmacy is associated with increased health risks due to the potential ...

Chronic stress is associated with sleep disturbance. In their new study, Lu Huang and colleagues identify the neural pathway behind this behavior, and at the same time, explain how bright-light treatment is able to counter it. The research was conducted in mice at Jinan University in China and published September 7th in the open access journal PLOS Biology. Bright-light treatment is known to improve sleep in those with sleep disorders, but how it works – and whether it works in cases of stress-induced sleep disturbances – was unknown. The researchers hypothesized that a part of the brain called the lateral habenula is deeply involved in this phenomenon because ...

A ‘near total’ lack of transparency is making it impossible to assess the quality of corporate-led ecosystem restoration projects, according to a Lancaster University-led study published today in Science. Efforts to rebuild degraded environments are vital for achieving global biodiversity targets. The United Nations has launched a Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, and in recent years businesses around the world have collectively pledged to plant billions of trees, hundreds of thousands of corals and tens of ...

An implantable sensor provided advanced warning of kidney transplant failure in rats as much as several weeks earlier than commonly used biomarkers of kidney function, researchers report. The device, tested in a rat model of kidney transplantation, provides real-time continuous monitoring of organ temperature and thermal conductivity, detecting inflammatory processes associated with graft rejection. Although lifesaving for patients with end-stage kidney disease, long-term kidney transplantation survival remains a major challenge. Graft failure ...

In 2022, the eruption of the submerged Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha apai volcano triggered a fast-moving and destructive underwater debris flow that severed telecommunication cables and reshaped the surrounding seafloor. The findings – representing some of the first fieldwork to document what happens when large volumes of erupted volcanic material are delivered directly into the ocean – provide new insights into the behavior and hazards of submerged volcanoes. Explosive volcanic eruptions on land create pyroclastic flows of hot ash and rock that, when they reach the ocean, can trigger damaging ...

Large transnational corporations (TNCs) are positioning themselves as environmental leaders, carrying out environmental restoration projects that go beyond their legal obligations. However, some corporations oversell their efforts. In this Policy Forum, Timothy Lamont and colleagues present an evaluation of sustainability reports of 100 of the world’s largest businesses, revealing the extent to which TNCs are claiming to contribute to, but failing to report on, ecosystem restoration. “Increased rigor, consistency, transparency, and accountability are needed to ensure that corporate-led restoration delivers quantifiable, ...

In 2021, more than 400 million metric tons of plastic waste were produced worldwide, and it is predicted that the world’s plastic waste growth will continue to outpace the efforts to reduce plastic pollution in the coming decades. As food delivery services became increasingly popular during the COVID-19 pandemic, the surge in plastic waste generated by single-use cutlery has become a key environmental challenge for many countries. A new study finds “green nudges” that encouraged customers to skip asking for cutlery with their delivery orders were dramatically successful and could be a powerful policy tool to reduce plastic waste. “Few policies target plastic waste ...

A body can reject a transplanted organ at any time — even decades later Signs of rejection must be caught early to intervene, preserve the organ Current monitoring methods are intermittent, imperfect and sometimes invasive New implant offers continuous monitoring by tracking the organ’s temperature When temperatures change, an alert is sent to a smartphone or tablet in real time EVANSTON, Ill. — Northwestern University researchers have developed the first electronic device for continuously monitoring ...

Who can forget the stomach-churning moments when “Survivor” contestants forced down crunchy insects, among other unappetizing edibles, for a chance to win $1 million? In daring culinary challenges, the TV show’s contestants exhibited gastronomic bravery as viewers watched in discomfort. Digesting a crunchy critter starts with the audible grinding of its rigid protective covering — the exoskeleton. Unpalatable as it may sound, the hard cover might be good for the metabolism, according to a new study, in mice, from Washington University School of Medicine ...

People who primarily use their own gut feeling to determine what is true and false are more likely to believe conspiracy theories. That is the conclusion of researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, who have investigated the relationship between susceptibility to misleading information and the conviction that the truth is relative.  “I think many people who emphasise a more relativistic view of what truth is mean well. They believe that it’s important that everyone should be able to make their voice heard. But these results show that such a view can actually be quite dangerous,” says PhD student ...

DALLAS and Al Mubarraz, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, September 7, 2023 — Almoosa Specialist Hospital, in Al Ahsa, Saudi Arabia has been recognized by the American Heart Association, the world's leading nonprofit organization focused on heart and brain health for all, as a the first Comprehensive Chest Pain Center in the country. This designation signifies the hospital’s status as a critical element in the kingdom’s effort to create a system of healthcare that seeks to save lives in Saudi Arabia by closing the gaps ...