COLUMBUS, Ohio – Major progress could be made in fighting the youth vaping epidemic with a complete restriction on sweet flavorings and cooling agents in both cartridge and disposable e-cigarette devices, according to a new study from the Center for Tobacco Research at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. The current U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) flavor ban only applies to cartridge electronic cigarette devices. A new study published in the Journal of Studies on Addiction and Drugs by researchers ...

July 10, 2023 — The Population Council’s GIRL Center, and co-hosts AFIDEP, AMPLIFY Girls, Baobab Research Programme Consortium, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Coalition for Adolescent Girls, Exemplars in Global Health, FP2030, Girl Effect, Girls First Fund, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the National Democratic Institute (NDI), Plan International, PMNCH, Purposeful, Together for Girls, UNICEF, Women Deliver, and The World Bank Africa Gender Innovation Lab, are proud to host the “Girls Deliver: Pre-Conference on Adolescent Girls,” on July 16. This one-day global convening ...

HOUSTON – (July 10, 2023) – One of the main ways cells “talk” to each other to coordinate essential biological activities such as muscle contraction, hormone release, neuronal firing, digestion and immune activation is through calcium signaling. Rice University scientists have used light-activated molecular machines to trigger intercellular calcium wave signals, revealing a powerful new strategy for controlling cellular activity, according to a new study published in Nature Nanotechnology. This technology could lead to improved treatments ...

The study of biomarkers in the brain—powered by cutting-edge machine learning techniques—could redefine the way mental health conditions are categorized and diagnosed and lead to more effective, personalized treatments.  That’s the goal of Yu Zhang, an assistant professor of bioengineering and electrical and computer engineering in Lehigh University’s P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science who recently landed major support from the National ...

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers have developed a novel method for underwater geolocalization using deep neural networks that have been trained on 10 million polarization-sensitive images collected from locations around the world. This new study, led by electrical and computer engineering professor Viktor Gruev, along with computer science professor David Forsyth, enables underwater geolocalization using only optical data while providing a tool for tethered-free underwater navigation. These findings were recently published in the journal eLight. “We are showing for the first time, you can geolocate yourself, or a camera, in a number of different ...

Antonios Anastasopoulos, Assistant Professor Computer Science, received $99,294 from the National Science Foundation for: "EAGER: Building Language Technologies by Machine Reading Grammars." This funding began in June 2023 and will end in late May 2024.  Anastasopoulos said, "This project aims to explore the feasibility of building language technologies while bypassing the need for exorbitant amounts of data, instead turning to already-codified linguistic knowledge. This is of particular importance for bridging the language technology gap for underserved communities: ...

Judit Ungvari, Research and Innovation Officer, Institute for a Sustainable Earth, and Leah Nichols, Executive Director, Institute for a Sustainable Earth, Research and Innovation Initiatives, received $277,602 from the National Science Foundation for: "Collaborative Research: Core Support for Future Earth International Global Change Research."  The grant will provide salary to support Ungvari’s work, travel funds, and support costs for participants to attend annual Sustainability Research and Innovation congresses where the Future Earth assembly occurs.  This funding began in May 2023 and will end ...

Indonesia, home to the largest tropical rainforest in Southeast Asia and over 17,500 islands, is a country packed with biodiversity and endangered species. However, scientists studying the region’s species and ecosystems are getting banned from Indonesia, and conservation plans are being blocked. In a letter publishing in the journal Current Biology on July 10, a team of conservation researchers with long-term experience in Indonesia discuss scientific suppression and other research challenges they have witnessed while working in the region. They offer suggestions for how to promote nature conservation, protect data ...

Nitric oxide (NO) is a fascinating and versatile molecule, important for all living things as well as the environment. It is highly reactive and toxic, organisms use it as a signaling molecule, it depletes the ozone layer in our planet’s atmosphere, and it is the precursor of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O). Moreover, NO might have played a fundamental role in the emergence and evolution of life on Earth, as it was available as a high-energy oxidant long before there was oxygen. Thus, despite its toxicity, it makes perfect sense that microbes use NO to grow. However, research on the topic is scarce and, to date, microbes growing on it have not been cultivated. ...

Observations of a wild colony of macaques over three years show same-sex sexual behaviour among males is widespread and may be beneficial. The results, published today in Nature Ecology and Evolution, suggest same-sex sexual behaviour (SSB) has evolved and may be a common feature of primate reproduction. Conducted by researchers at Imperial College London, the observations and genetic data form the first long-term study of SSB in males within one species. Their study challenges the beliefs of some that SSB is a rare behaviour in non-human ...

In a peer-reviewed opinion paper publishing July 10 in the journal Patterns, researchers show that computer programs commonly used to determine if a text was written by artificial intelligence tend to falsely label articles written by non-native language speakers as AI-generated. The researchers caution against the use of such AI text detectors for their unreliability, which could have negative impacts on individuals including students and those applying for jobs. “Our current recommendation ...

The summer of 2022 was the hottest summer ever recorded in Europe and was characterised by an intense series of record-breaking heat waves, droughts and forest fires. While Eurostat, the European statistical office, already reported unusually high excess mortality for those dates, until now the fraction of mortality attributable to heat had not been quantified. This is precisely what has been done in a study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the "la Caixa" ...

Brain tissue is one of the most intricate specimens that scientists have arguably ever dealt with. Packed with currently immeasurable amount of information, the human brain is the most sophisticated computational device with its network of around 86 billion neurons. Understanding such complexity is a difficult task, and hence making progress requires technologies to unravel the tiny, complex interactions taking place in the brain at microscopic scales. Imaging is therefore an enabling tool in neuroscience. The new imaging and virtual reconstruction technology developed by Johann Danzl’s group at ISTA is a ...

About The Study: In this cross-sectional study, more than one-fourth of children had delayed or missed preventive care due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings may guide targeted interventions to enhance timely pediatric preventive care among different racial and ethnic groups.  Authors: Maya Tabet, Ph.D., M.S., of the University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.22588) Editor’s ...

About The Study: The findings of this study showed an association between exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic and delayed childhood development at age 5. Variations in development widened during the pandemic regardless of age. It is important to identify children with developmental delays associated with the pandemic and provide them with support for learning, socialization, physical and mental health, and family support.  Authors: Koryu Sato, M.P.H., of Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed ...

About The Study: Based on U.S. nationally representative data, the estimated learning disability prevalence was 8.83% among children and adolescents ages 6 to 17 from 1997 to 2021, which was slightly higher than that from a previous National Health Interview Survey study from 2009 to 2017 (7.74%). These data indicate that learning disability is a common chronic condition among U.S. children, affecting about 9 in 100 overall. In this population-based study, no significant annual change was found.  Authors: Wenhan ...

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE EMBARGOED UNTIL 16:00 LONDON TIME (GMT) ON MONDAY 10 JULY 2023 Paper available at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TzS8tT1_Z4knsHs38gp4LOlLKiPvOUEy?usp=sharing In-person mindfulness courses help improve mental health for at least six months, study shows Adults who voluntarily take part in mindfulness courses are less likely to experience symptoms of anxiety and depression for at least six months after completing the programmes, compared to adults who do not take ...

About The Study: This randomized clinical trial found that treatment with abatacept, cenicriviroc, or infliximab showed no significant difference of time to recovery compared with placebo for patients hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia. Authors: William G. Powderly, M.D., of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2023.11043) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest ...

The frequency and severity of wildfires have become increasingly alarming in recent years, substantially due to the effects of climate change. Rising global temperatures, altered weather patterns, and prolonged droughts are all consequences of climate change that contribute to the heightened risk of wildfires. The 2019-2020 Australian wildfires demonstrated that compound climatic events – long-lasting record high temperatures combined with record low precipitation – can lead to unprecedented ...

This study has attracted the attention of the international scientific community and opens up unprecedented perspectives in the formation of frequency combs: it predicts the existence of two-dimensional optical rules, more complex than the one-dimensional ones used so far and offering unprecedented versatility in a wide range of applications. Applications in communications, spectroscopy, or computing Frequency combs have a wide range of applications, particularly in the field of communications. According to the authors of the study, these combs allow large amounts of information to be transmitted through optical fibres in a ...

Orangutans are dependent on their mothers longer than any other non-human animal, nursing until they are at least six years old and living with her for up to three more years, learning how to find, choose, and process the exceedingly varied range of foods they eat. But how do orangutans that have left their mothers and now live far from their natal ranges, where the available foods may be very different, decide what to eat and figure out how to eat it? Now, an international team of authors has shown that in such cases, migrants follow the rule ‘observe, and do as the locals do’. “Here we show evidence that migrant orangutan males ...

The process of converting DNA to proteins through an RNA is far from straightforward. Of the several types of RNA involved in the process of protein synthesis, a few may be edited mid-way. In mammals, RNA editing mostly involves converting adenosine (A) to inosine (I) through deamination, which can result in a wide range of effects. For example, A-to-I conversion can regulate gene expression in different ways and significantly alter the final synthesized protein. While RNA editing is an essential biological process, it is also a key underlying mechanism in some diseases, including cancer. Thus, scientists have created large-scale databases documenting RNA editing sites in various human ...

The community of microbial predators influences the composition of the bacterial community in wastewater. This explains seasonal variations in the microbial community that affect the efficiency of water treatment. This is the result of a study conducted by Nils Heck and PD Dr Kenneth Dumack from the University of Cologne’s Institute of Zoology. The study has been published under the title ‘Microeukaryotic predators shape the wastewater microbiome’ in the journal Water Research. In wastewater treatment plants, a precisely coordinated interaction of different microorganisms takes place in order to effectively ...

University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers have discovered how the cells that let us hear can repair themselves after being damaged. That important insight could benefit efforts to develop new and better ways to treat and prevent hearing loss. “Hair cells” found in the inner ear, are important both for our ability to hear and our sense of balance. They are known as hair cells because the cells are covered in hair-like structures that serve as mechanical antennas for sound detection. When auditory hair cells are killed, as we learn in school, they are ...

INDIANAPOLIS – Information on the nonmedical factors that influence health outcomes, known as social determinants of health, is often collected at medical appointments. But this information is frequently recorded as text within the clinical notes written by physicians, nurses, social workers, and therapists. Researchers from Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University Fairbanks School of Public Health recently published one of the first studies in which natural language processing was applied to social determinants of health. The researchers developed three new natural language processing algorithms to successfully extract information from text data related to housing ...