URBANA, Ill. -- A bad case of the flu during pregnancy can increase the risk for fetal neurodevelopmental disorders such as schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder. But it’s not the virus itself doing the damage; it’s the mother’s immune response.  New University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign research using live mouse-adapted influenza virus improves upon previous mouse experiments to explain the process on a cellular and molecular level. It also indicates fetal brain changes are more likely once the severity of the mother’s infection meets a specific threshold. “Our data provide really compelling evidence for an infection severity ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- It sounds fantastical, but it’s a reality for the scientists who work at the world’s largest particle collider: In an underground tunnel some 350 feet beneath the France–Switzerland border, a huge device called the Large Hadron Collider sends beams of protons smashing into each other at nearly the speed of light, creating tiny eruptions that mimic the conditions that existed immediately after the Big Bang. Scientists like Duke physicist Ashutosh Kotwal think the subatomic debris of these collisions could contain hints ...

The research, led by Dr Lisa Quadt, Research Fellow in Psychiatry at BSMS and Dr Jessica Eccles, Reader in Brain-Body Medicine at BSMS, highlights a significant link between neurodivergence and chronic fatigue. The study found that increased inflammation in childhood, often resulting from heightened stress levels, may be a contributing factor. This supports previous findings that suggest chronic fatigue can be rooted in inflammatory processes. “These results show the importance of trans-diagnostic screening for children and the need for better support for neurodivergent children” says Dr Quadt. “Children with neurodivergent ...

AMES, Iowa – Pay attention the next time you drive near your home, farm or business. You’ll notice small, green utility boxes all over the place. They’re distribution transformers. If they’re not working properly, electricity won’t flow to your lights and appliances.   Those boxes take kilovolts of electricity (that’s high voltage, measured in 1,000s of volts) from transmission lines and step it down to the safer, practical 120 or 240 volts that power our daily lives.   “Utilities have plenty of them,” said Zhaoyu Wang, an Iowa State University professor of electrical and computer engineering. “Most of them only ...

Portland State University (PSU) has been awarded $1,976,806 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Sea Grant Marine Debris Challenge Award Program to lead an innovative and collaborative three-year project to address microplastic pollution on the Oregon coast. This grant is part of a $27 million project between the U.S. Department of Commerce and NOAA. Portland State will host one of 11 projects that received a total of $25 million in funding across Alabama, California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin. These projects ...

ROCKVILLE, Md. – July 29, 2024 – The Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP), the premier global molecular diagnostic professional society, today announced the recipients of this year’s Excellence in Molecular Diagnostics, Jeffrey A. Kant Leadership, and Meritorious Service Awards. These prestigious accolades will be presented to the winners this November during AMP’s 2024 Annual Meeting & Expo in Vancouver, British Columbia. Award for Excellence in Molecular Diagnostics Atul Butte, MD, PhD Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Distinguished ...

An analysis of pre-treatment tumor specimens from 105 patients with localized muscle-invasive bladder cancer found that the presence of a mutation in any one of three genes, all known to be involved in DNA damage repair, was associated with complete pathologic response to cisplatin-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy as measured by pathological downstaging at the time of bladder surgery. Results are published in the journal European Urology. “The SWOG S8710 randomized trial provided Level 1 evidence supporting ...

In the fight to mitigate climate change and deforestation in the tropics, timber plantations have emerged as a promising strategy for reforesting degraded land and connecting patches of natural forest. Often, these are species with commercial value for landowners but are not native to the region. To evaluate how well non-native tree plantations support native wildlife in heavily human-impacted areas, researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB), Wageningen University & Research, and the University of California – Davis surveyed over 200 hectares of timber plantations ...

Wang Receives Funding For Experiential Learning Program  Zhengdao Wang, Professor, Cybersecurity Engineering, College of Engineering and Computing (CEC), received $14,000 from Old Dominion Research Foundation for: “CCI—2024 Experiential Learning Program/Water System Infrastructure - Innovative Experiential Learning.”  Wang intends to enhance awareness and understanding of cybersecurity risks associated with public water systems by developing an educational simulation game, "CyberShield H2O."    He will provide ...

Research conducted at the University of Gothenburg shows that the physical activities we do as we go about our lives, at work or in the home, aren’t enough to protect us from having a stroke. However, exercising in our free time and using active modes of transport are associated with a decreased risk of stroke. “Physical activity during leisure time and as transportation is becoming increasingly important now that many jobs and domestic activities are becoming more sedentary,” says lead ...

Hepatic cell carcinoma (HCC), the fifth most prevalent malignancy worldwide and the fourth leading cause of cancer-related mortality, poses significant therapeutic challenges. Despite advancements in medical research, late-stage HCC patients have a dismal five-year survival rate of less than 20%. The complexity of liver cancer development involves an intricate interplay of genetic and environmental factors. Among these, mitochondrial alterations and mutations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) are increasingly recognized as critical contributors to cancer pathogenesis. These changes not only impair cellular bioenergetics ...

About The Study: By assigning lower atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk predictions, application of the Predicting Risk of cardiovascular disease EVENTs (PREVENT) equations to existing treatment thresholds could reduce eligibility for statin and antihypertensive therapy among 15.8 million U.S. adults.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Arjun K. Manrai, Ph.D., email Arjun_Manrai@hms.harvard.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2024.12537) Editor’s ...

Losing someone close, like a family member, can make you age faster, says a new study from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Butler Columbia Aging Center. The study found that people who lost a parent, partner, sibling, or child, showed signs of older biological age compared to those who hadn’t experienced such losses. The research was published in JAMA Network Open. Biological aging is the gradual decline in how well your cells, tissues, and organs function, leading to a higher risk of chronic diseases. Scientists measure this type of aging using DNA markers known as epigenetic clocks. “Few studies ...

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that infants born to mothers with obesity are at increased risk of sudden unexpected infant death (SUID), with a dose-dependent association between increasing maternal body mass index and SUID risk. Maternal obesity should be added to the list of known risk factors for SUID. With maternal obesity rates increasing, research should identify potential causal mechanisms for this association. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Darren Tanner, Ph.D., email darren.tanner@microsoft.com. To access the ...

About The Study: Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) was safe but did not offer clinically meaningful improvements. Further studies—for example, through modified FMT approaches or bowel cleansing—are warranted regarding the specific impact of donor microbiota composition and dysbiosis conversion on motor and nonmotor outcomes as well as medication needs in Parkinson disease. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Filip Scheperjans, M.D., Ph.D., email filip.scheperjans@hus.fi. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2024.2305) Editor’s ...

About The Article: The studies highlighted in this special issue of JAMA Network Open demonstrate important scientific progress in the complex integration of social determinants of health and health disparities with biological pathways and health outcomes to improve understanding of the mechanisms underlying health disparities among various underserved populations. Continued progress remains important in integrating different disciplines to transform the field of health disparities research. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Arielle S. Gillman, Ph.D., M.P.H., email arielle.gillman@nih.gov. To ...

Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, have developed a model that rapidly converts stem cells to brain cells with protein structures characteristic of Parkinson’s disease (PD), enabling the study of the condition’s unique and highly variable disease pathology in a petri dish. The study details how the model can one day be used to develop personalized diagnostic and treatment methods for Parkinson’s disease. Results are published in Neuron. “We sought to assess how quickly we could ...

A recently unveiled cardiovascular disease risk calculator that measures a patient’s risk for heart attack and stroke is better calibrated and more precise than its previous version, but if current treatment guidelines for cholesterol and blood pressure therapy remain unchanged, the new calculator may have unintended consequences, according to research from Harvard Medical School. The analysis, published July 29 in JAMA, estimates that the new risk calculator would render nearly 16 million people newly ineligible under current treatment thresholds that guide clinical decisions about who should get cholesterol ...

Previous research has found that over 80 percent of people with opioid use disorder (OUD) do not receive evidence-based lifesaving medications. While access to these medications is better in New York City than elsewhere in the United States, numerous structural and social barriers impede access to treatment, and more than 100,000 people in the U.S. continue to die from drug overdoses each year. To help close this alarming treatment gap, researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine partnered with the New York ...

Researchers at UC San Francisco have found a link between following a diet that is rich in vitamins and minerals, especially one without much added sugar, and having a younger biological age at the cellular level.     They looked at how three different measures of healthy eating affected an “epigenetic clock” – a biochemical test that can approximate both health and lifespan – and found that the better people ate, the younger their cells looked. Even when people ate healthy diets, ...

A team of biologists from the University of Delhi and Zoological Survey of India, Harvard University, and the University of Minnesota has discovered a unique breeding behavior in a species of frog endemic to the Andaman Islands of India. In a new study published in the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology’s journal Breviora, scientists describe a combination of traits that makes reproduction in this frog unique. The Andamanese Charles Darwin’s frog, Minervarya charlesdarwini, belongs to the family Dicroglossidae, a large radiation of Asian frogs that comprises over ...

PHILADELPHIA – With bird flu virus detected in cow’s milk, U.S. health authorities have warned the public against potential sources of exposure, including drinking raw or unpasteurized milk, and have reiterated a general warning that consuming uncooked or undercooked poultry or beef products can make you sick. Relatively few people say they drink raw milk. Only 3% of U.S. adults report having consumed raw milk in the past 12 months, while 4% were not sure whether they had, according to a new nationally representative Annenberg Public Policy Center health survey of nearly 1,500 empaneled U.S. adults conducted in July.* But many more people say they do ...

In a healthy human body, tissue growth and development are coordinated by many different mechanisms. Within our bodies, these mechanisms regulate the healthy growth of cells, limit their size and number, and control the timing of cell death through apoptosis. However, when these regulatory pathways are altered, or break down, cell growth and proliferation may increase beyond what is safe and this can lead to cancer. One critical cell growth regulatory mechanism is the Hippo signaling pathway. This pathway regulates the expression of several genes that control cell proliferation ...

Asbestos, a group of naturally occurring fibrous minerals, has been historically used for its durability and resistance to heat. Despite its advantageous properties, asbestos is a well-documented carcinogen, linked to diseases such as lung cancer (LC) and malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). The controversy surrounding the degree of carcinogenicity of different asbestos types, especially chrysotile versus amphibole asbestos, continues to influence scientific and regulatory discussions. This review delves into the various aspects of asbestos-related research, focusing on historical context, risk assessment, environmental ...

NCSA Director Bill Gropp and two former Center directors were chosen for the first-ever HPCwire “35 Legends” list in celebration of the publication’s 35th anniversary. Thirty-five honorees will be announced each year, selected by HPCwire editors and advisors based on their contributions to the high-performance computing community over the past 35 years and celebrated for the different ways they’ve helped move HPC forward. Gropp, NCSA’s Founding Director Larry Smarr and Former Director Daniel Reed were among the first 17 honorees announced in July. The remaining HPCwire 35 Legends will be ...