The inflammatory activity in the body caused by rheumatoid arthritis is linked to specific cognitive impairments, finds a small comparative study, published in the open access journal RMD Open.  These are diminished visuospatial abilities, recall, abstract thinking, and the executive functions of working memory, concentration, and inhibition. Inflammatory activity in rheumatoid arthritis has been associated with various systemic effects, including on the brain, but it’s not clear which specific cognitive domains might be affected. To try and find out, the researchers compared the cognitive ...

Rubbing a lettuce leaf on a nettle sting to ease the associated discomfort may be just as good as using the age-old folk remedy of a dock leaf, suggest the results of a small comparative study, published online in Emergency Medicine Journal. It may simply be the cooling and soothing effect of sap evaporating from a crushed leaf that brings relief, and doing nothing might work just as well, although possibly not if you’re a small child, suggest the researchers. Nettles are a common native plant in the British Isles. Their stems and leaves are covered in stinging hairs, or trichomes, with a brittle tip that snaps off when touched, ...

DETROIT – Taunya A. Phillips has been named the assistant vice president for Technology Commercialization in the Division of Research & Innovation at Wayne State University. Phillips will lead revitalization efforts of the technology transfer and commercialization office that includes increasing the protection and commercialization of intellectual property developed at Wayne State, as well as promoting innovation and entrepreneurship efforts in support of the university’s strategic goals and Prosperity Agenda. Her guidance will aid the university’s efforts and commitment to propelling Michigan’s competitiveness in 21st century commerce and cultivating a campus ...

The atmosphere, the ocean and life on Earth interacted over the past 500-plus million years in ways that improved conditions for early organisms to thrive. Now, an interdisciplinary team of scientists has produced a perspective article of this co-evolutionary history published in multidisciplinary open-access journal National Science Review (Oxford University Press, Impact Factor 20.7). “One of our tasks was to summarize the most important discoveries about carbon dioxide and oxygen in the atmosphere and ocean over the past 500 million ...

Physician-scientists from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine have uncovered significant findings regarding the impact of transthyretin, or TTR, protein levels on heart disease risk. The study, recently published in Nature Communications, explores how variations in TTR levels are associated with adverse clinical outcomes, providing new insights into the prevention and management of amyloid heart disease. Transthyretin is a transport protein produced in the liver, and its misfolding is linked to the development of cardiac amyloidosis, a condition that leads to heart failure and increased mortality. The study, led ...

      MEDIA INQUIRES   WRITTEN BY Laura Muntean   Ashley Vargo laura.muntean@ag.tamu.edu     601-248-1891     FOR ...

Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 29 July 2024      Annals of Internal Medicine Tip Sheet       @Annalsofim      Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also ...

INGHAMTON, N.Y. -- Researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York have developed a self-powered “bug” that can skim across the water, and they hope it will revolutionize aquatic robotics. Futurists predict that more than one trillion autonomous nodes will be integrated into all human activities by 2035 as part of the “internet of things.” Soon, pretty much any object — big or small — will feed information to a central database without the need for human involvement. Making this idea tricky is that 71% of the Earth’s ...

July 22, 2024, was the hottest day on record, according to a NASA analysis of global daily temperature data. July 21 and 23 of this year also exceeded the previous daily record, set in July 2023. These record-breaking temperatures are part of a long-term warming trend driven by human activities, primarily the emission of greenhouse gases. As part of its mission to expand our understanding of Earth, NASA collects critical long-term observations of our changing planet.  “In a year that has been the hottest on record to date, these past two weeks have ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- A National Institutes of Health grant received by Vijayalakshmi (Viji) Santhakumar, a professor of molecular, cell and systems biology at the University of California, Riverside, has been selected for the prestigious Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award, the first time for the campus. The five-year, $3.5 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, or NINDS, of the National Institutes of Health is a collaborative study with Edward Zagha, an associate professor of psychology at UCR. The award will support research into how brain circuits contribute to episodic memory formation and how ...

Researchers at Purdue University have trapped alkali atoms (cesium) on an integrated photonic circuit, which behaves like a transistor for photons (the smallest energy unit of light) similar to electronic transistors. These trapped atoms demonstrate the potential to build a quantum network based on cold-atom integrated nanophotonic circuits. The team, led by Chen-Lung Hung, associate professor of physics and astronomy at the Purdue University College of Science, published their discovery in the American Physical Society’s Physical Review X. “We developed a technique to use lasers ...

Researchers who study belief dynamics often use analogies to understand and model the complex cognitive–social systems that underly why we believe the things we do and how those beliefs can change over time. Ideas can be transmitted like a virus, for instance, “infecting” a population as they spread from person to person. We might be drawn — like magnets — to others with a similar worldview. A society’s beliefs can shift slowly before reaching a tipping point that thrusts society into a new phase. In a new paper in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, SFI Professor Mirta Galesic and ...

In 1953, 15-year-old Joe Ligon and four other Pennsylvania teens went on an alcohol-fueled tear that resulted in the stabbing deaths of two people and injuries to six more. The teens were tried as a group, and all received life without parole.  After a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions in 2012 and 2016 found that mandatory life sentences for juveniles was unconstitutional, Ligon’s case went to federal court. After 67 long years in prison, the case was decided in his favor in 2020. Ligon was granted his freedom in 2021 — at 83 years of age and after ...

Elon Musk recently declared on X that Blindsight, a cortical implant to restore vision, would have low resolution at first “but may ultimately exceed normal human vision.” That pronouncement is unrealistic at best, according to new research from the University of Washington. Ione Fine, lead author and UW professor of psychology, said Musk’s projection for the latest Neuralink project rests on the flawed premise that implanting millions of tiny electrodes into the visual cortex, the region of the brain that processes information received from the eye, will result in high-resolution vision. For the study, ...

The National Science Foundation will provide funding to the University of Virginia’s Data Justice Academy, the agency recently announced, support that will help the summer program continue to serve undergraduate students from groups that are historically underrepresented in data science.   Established in 2021, the Data Justice Academy provides a 10-week residential experience to participants in which they perform mentored research while learning technical skills.  The overriding goal of the Data Justice Academy, which is jointly managed by UVA’s School of Data Science and Equity Center, ...

University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) Dean Mark T. Gladwin, MD, announced today that R. Frank Henn, III, MD, Professor of Orthopaedics, who has served as Interim Chair of the Department since 2022, has been appointed to serve as the new Chair of UMSOM’s Department of Orthopaedics, effective immediately. Dr. Henn, who joined the Department in 2010, is an academic leader and highly regarded, board-certified orthopaedic surgeon; he has published significant scientific research, and is a leading clinician focusing on the care of the shoulder and knee, with an emphasis in cartilage ...

Los Angeles, California – July 29, 2024 - Terasaki Institute scientists have created a cutting-edge technology inspired by nature by developing a novel bioink derived from egg whites or Egg White methacryloyl (EWMA). Bioinks are mainly used in 3D bioprinting to create artificial tissues. These natural or synthetic materials support living cells, aiding their adhesion, growth, and differentiation. They are essential for developing complex tissue structures for medical research, drug testing, and organ transplantation. This novel EWMA bioink represents a promising addition to this field, offering a unique combination of properties that address many challenges faced in tissue engineering. The ...

From coastal redwoods and Joshua trees to golden poppies and sagebrush, California is a global botanical hotspot. It’s also a place confronted with extreme heat, wildfires and crumbling coastlines. The state’s natural beauty and history of pioneering conservation efforts make it a test bed for protecting biodiversity in the face of current and future climate change, argues a study led by the University of California, Davis.  Published July 29 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study, “Climate Change and California’s Terrestrial Biodiversity,” is part of a special ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Scientists agree that solving some of society’s greatest challenges in biomedicine such as food sustainability, aging and disease treatment will need researchers from a variety of scientific fields working together. But a new study finds that the young scientists who most embrace interdisciplinary research face “career impediments” not seen in their peers who focus their work only within their own disciplines. The results are troublesome and pose a “grave challenge” to efforts to increase interdisciplinary ...

A research team led by University of Liège scientists has published a groundbreaking study on malignant catarrhal fever (MCF). This disease is caused by the alcelaphine gammaherpesvirus 1 (AlHV-1), which infects its natural host, the wildebeest.  This study sheds light on the mechanisms by which this virus, which is asymptomatic and latent in the wildebeest, causes an oligoclonal expansion of CD8+ T lymphocytes in cattle, leading to the development of MCF. In 2013, the research team had already demonstrated (1) that malignant catarrhal fever (MCF), which is fatal in cattle, only develops if the AlHV-1 virus can maintain a ...

All languages have words like ‘this’ and ‘that’ to distinguish between referents that are ‘near’ and ‘far’. Languages like English or Hebrew have two of these ‘demonstratives’. Languages like Spanish or Japanese use a three-word system. For instance, in Spanish, ‘este’ signals something close to the speaker, ‘ese’ signals something far from the speaker but close to the listener, and ‘aquel’ signals something far from both. “The reason why we were interested in demonstratives is because of their ...

Local foods are critical to the food security and health of Indigenous peoples around the world, but local "informal" economies are often invisible in official economic statistics. Consequently, these economies may be overlooked in the policies designed to combat climate change. For instance, Indigenous communities in the North American Arctic are characterized by mixed economies featuring hunting, fishing, gathering and trapping activities, alongside the formal wage economy. The region is also undergoing a rapid transformation due to social, economic and climatic changes. In Canada, the introduction ...

California should take urgent and bold measures to adapt its $59 billion agriculture sector to climate change as the amount of water available for crops declines, according to a collaborative report by University of California faculty from four campuses. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the report provides a roadmap for more water capture, storage, and distribution systems that are in harmony with climate projections and ecosystems. It further considers how runoff and groundwater can be used repeatedly ...

If you’re trying to keep drivers from picking up their phones, make it a game, according to a new Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) study led by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. When drivers could earn points for making reductions in handheld phone use and had the chance to compete in a weekly leaderboard of others like them, researchers saw as much as a 28 percent reduction in handheld phone use while driving, a habit that stuck once the intervention—and the games—ended. “Distracted driving ...

A study reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) shows how the presence of a specific protein called IL-22BP affects the composition of the gut microbiota and the body’s response to bacterial infection. “We discovered that mice that don’t produce this protein are more protected against intestinal infections by bacteria like Clostridioides difficile and Citrobacter rodentium,” Marco Aurélio Ramirez Vinolo, a co-author of the article, told. He is a professor at the State University of Campinas’s Institute of Biology (IB-UNICAMP) in Brazil and head of its Immunoinflammation Laboratory. IL-22BP ...