Researchers at Princeton and UCLA have developed a passive mechanism to cool buildings in the summer and warm them in the winter. In an article published June 27 in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science, they report that by restricting radiant heat flows between buildings and their environment to specific wavelengths, coatings engineered from common materials can achieve energy savings and thermal comfort that goes beyond what traditional building envelopes can achieve. “With the increase ...

HOUSTON ― Results from a new study led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center support standard use of the more precise intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) over the alternative 3D-conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) for patients with unresectable, locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The study, published today in JAMA Oncology, revealed fewer side effects with IMRT, with similar survival outcomes. A prospective secondary analysis of long-term outcomes from 483 patients on the Phase III NRG Oncology-RTOG 0617 randomized trial demonstrated ...

A study of multiple Mycena mushroom species reported in the journal Cell Genomics has found that they have unexpectedly large genomes. While the mushrooms had been thought to be purely saprotrophic – living by degrading dead organic material alone – the discovery suggests that they may instead have a collection of genes to enable them to adapt to different lifestyles as circumstances change. Interestingly, they show certain Mycena strains living in the Arctic have some of the largest mushroom genomes ever described.   These mushrooms show widespread growth across their genome. This includes not only the genes that help them invade or interact ...

In collaboration with the BioInnovation Institute (BII), AAAS is announcing the establishment of the BII & Science Translational Medicine Prize for Innovations in Women’s Health. Submissions are now open for the first year of the prize, which will be awarded in 2025. The new award will aim to recognize and elevate scientists who have made outstanding research discoveries that have translational potential to impact women’s health around the world. Relevant research topics include, but are not limited to, investigation into maternal health and gynecological conditions, areas of ...

Images   Simultaneously advancing biomaterials research with clinical applications and connecting researchers at well-resourced institutions with those rich in diverse talent is the aim of a $10.5 million center supported by the National Institutes of Health.    The Humanity Unlocking Biomaterials center, led by the University of Michigan and University of Washington, is designed to spur the development of biomaterials solutions that have potential in medical treatments by bringing together researchers and providing seed funding to kickstart ...

The European Southern Observatory’s Extremely Large Telescope (ESO’s ELT), under construction in the Chilean Atacama Desert, is one step closer to completion. German company SCHOTT has successfully cast the blank for the last of the 949 segments commissioned for the telescope’s primary mirror (M1). With a diameter of more than 39 metres, M1 will be by far the largest mirror ever made for a telescope. Too large to be made from a single piece of glass, M1 will consist of 798 hexagonal segments, each about five centimetres thick and 1.5 ...

Older coastal cities, like Philadelphia, New York and Boston are at risk of being inundated by untreated sewage during floods. Due in part to the design of their combined sewer systems and in part due to sea level rise, these cities could be facing a growing public health crisis as climate change also drives more extreme precipitation, according to researchers at Drexel University who study urban stormwater management. The group recently published research that modeled the potential extent of the problem in a section of the coastal city of Camden, New Jersey, and the effectiveness of one proposed intervention to help ...

At present, stroke has become one of the most serious neurological diseases, which is usually accompanied by movement disorders and cognitive impairment. In recent years, the number of stroke patients has increased annually . Most stroke patients are accompanied by movement disorders, which seriously affect the normal life of patients. A groundbreaking study conducted by Shihao Sun and colleagues, recently published in the Cyborg Bionic Systems journal, has introduced innovative findings in the realm of Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES), particularly its application in muscle recovery and fatigue management. Functional ...

HOUSTON ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Rice University today announced the creation of the Cancer Bioengineering Collaborative to develop innovative technologies and bioengineering approaches to improve cancer research, diagnosis and treatment. Led by Rice’s Gang Bao, Ph.D., and MD Anderson’s Jeffrey Molldrem, M.D., the initiative aims to foster collaboration between the two institutions on fundamental and translational cancer research, to develop new technologies for cancer detection and therapy, and to secure external funding in support of further research and training. Envisioned as a hub for accelerating ...

Researchers have developed an innovative method for assessing spinal muscle strength, utilizing isokinetic testing combined with advanced spine musculoskeletal modeling. This cutting-edge approach, detailed in a study published by the Cyborg and Bionic Systems journal, marks a significant advancement in personalized health and athletic training. Understanding individual muscle strength is crucial for optimizing physical therapy and enhancing athletic performance. Traditional methods, however, often fall short in precision. The newly introduced technique by Zuming Xiao and colleagues from the Beijing Institute of Technology and Shenyang ...

We are pleased to share that many MIT Press journals were ranked highly in their fields in 2023, earning exceptional impact factors—which measure recent citation activity for scholarship—and placing in the top quartile of all journals for their areas of study.  Several MIT Press journals in linguistics landed in the top of the field—including Transactions of the Association for Computational Linguistics at #6 out of all 297 linguistics journals in publication; Computational Linguistics at #10; Neurobiology of Language at #14; and Linguistic Inquiry at #77.  We ...

OAKLAND, Calif., June 27, 2024 – Power outages are on the rise nationwide as climate change brings more frequent wildfires, heat waves, and severe weather events. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the state of California have both recently established funding to help communities create “resilience hubs” that rely on solar+battery systems to provide emergency power for residents. A new study in the journal Risk Analysis finds that strategically placing resilience hubs throughout California could generate up to 8 GW of solar energy and lower the state’s carbon emissions by 5 million tons ...

A new study has illuminated the connection between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and lipid profile.  IBD is a chronic condition that causes inflammation in the intestines. Abnormal lipid factor levels such as cholesterol in IBD patients have been observed in previous studies, but whether this association is causal remained unclear. This study employed Mendelian randomization (MR) to investigate the potential causal link between lipid profile and IBD. The results revealed no significant ...

In recent years, rehabilitation robots have become increasingly popular in the field of healthcare, able to mimic the movements of a therapist and enhance patients' mobility through carefully designed control methods. A team from the Automation College of Beijing Institute of Technology, led by Kexin Hu, Zhongjing Ma, Suli Zou, Jian Li, and Haoran Ding, in collaboration with collaborators from the University College London, has recently proposed a novel impedance sliding mode control method that combines stiffness scheduling technology, which has brought significant advancements to rehabilitation robot systems. This research has broken through the ...

Around the time of the untimely death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old Black man in police custody, researchers from Johns Hopkins University were collecting data for Communities CARING, a study that examined the relationship of health behaviors among public housing residents in East and West Baltimore communities in Maryland. Led by Kristal Lyn Brown, PhD, an assistant professor in Drexel University’s College of Nursing and Health Professions, a secondary analysis of the data collected for Communities CARING examined the relationship between a high-profile event (Gray’s death) and disordered eating ...

Korean researchers are strengthening South Korea’s leadership in the global market through the development of 6G, the next-generation mobile communication technology. Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) announced that they showcased their latest research results at the “6G Symposium Spring 2024” held in Oulu, Finland, from April 9 to 11, drawing the attention of attendees. At this symposium, ETRI particularly showcased its “service mesh” technology. This technology is a key 6G technology that addresses complex communication issues among numerous cloud-nativemobile network functions that ...

Researchers have identified a protein called PFDN6 that may play a role in the development and spread of colorectal cancer (CRC). The study, published in [journal name], found that PFDN6 levels are increased in CRC patients and contribute to tumor growth. By reducing PFDN6 in lab studies, scientists were able to slow cancer cell spread and increase cell death. These findings suggest that PFDN6 could be a target for future CRC treatments. CRC is the third most common cancer worldwide and has a poor prognosis, especially ...

When operating on the heart, surgeons may find another issue in the patient. Depending on what they see, the surgical team may address on the secondary condition during the same operation.  These are sometimes called concomitant procedures.  However, two studies led by Michigan Medicine find that female patients who undergo heart surgery are less likely to have secondary ailments corrected during a procedure — despite guidelines that indicate they should.  “Across the spectrum of cardiovascular care, from medical management to transcatheter and surgical procedures, there is growing evidence that women ...

LONDON, ON – A team at Lawson Health Research Institute is the first in Canada to perform a transplant using a technique called abdominal normothermic regional perfusion (A-NRP), which could lead to more organs being available for transplant. The technique was used to optimize organs from two donors in April 2024 at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC), resulting in the successful transplantation of two kidneys and two livers to four patients.  “Organ donation after circulatory death (when the heart stops beating) has historically been less reliable than organ donation after brain death,” explained Dr. Anton Skaro, Associate Scientist ...

Researchers have discovered that zinc plays a crucial role in the nitrogen fixation process of legumes. This finding, along with the transcriptional regulator Fixation Under Nitrate (FUN), could revolutionize legume-based agriculture by optimizing crop efficiency and reducing reliance on synthetic fertilizers. By understanding how zinc and FUN regulate nitrogen fixation, researchers might be able to enhance nitrogen delivery, improve crop yields, and promote more sustainable agricultural practices. The new knowledge about zinc can change the way we cultivate crops, as plants can ...

Just four per cent of talented teen academy prospects make it to the top tier of professional football, a new study has shown. A sample of nearly 200 players, aged between 13-18, also revealed only six per cent of the budding ballers even go on to play in lower leagues. The University of Essex researchers discovered the players who succeeded excelled in self-confidence, ball reception skills, dribbling and coaches’ subjective technical assessments. The study – published in the International Journal ...

Experts have identified 240 Chinese cities whose emission reduction are mainly benefiting from the carbon mitigation actions of other cities, whilst putting in less effort themselves.  Researchers studied the phenomenon across 309 Chinese cities using data from 2012 to 2017 – a period when China underwent economic reform and industrial transformation.  Constructing a city-level input-output model to assess carbon footprints, the researchers identified 78% of the cities as ‘outsourced beneficiaries’, ...

It is widely accepted that biological interactions are stronger or more important in generating and maintaining biodiversity in the tropics than in temperate regions. However, this hypothesis has not been fully tested in ecology and evolutionary biology. In a study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, researchers from the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have provided strong support for this central prediction by examining phytochemical diversity and herbivory in 60 tree communities ...

Slush – water-soaked snow – makes up more than half of all meltwater on the Antarctic ice shelves during the height of summer, yet is poorly accounted for in regional climate models. Researchers led by the University of Cambridge used artificial intelligence techniques to map slush on Antarctic ice shelves, and found that 57% of all meltwater is held in the form of slush, with the remaining amount in surface ponds and lakes. As the climate warms, more meltwater is formed on the surface of ice shelves, the floating ice surrounding Antarctica which acts as ...

A more accurate way to scan for tuberculosis (TB) has been developed by UK and US researchers, using positron emission tomography (PET). The team, from the Rosalind Franklin Institute, the Universities of Oxford and Pittsburgh and the National Institutes of Health in the USA, have developed a new radiotracer, which is taken up by live TB bacteria in the body. Radiotracers are radioactive compounds which give off radiation that can be detected by scanners and turned into a 3D image. The new radiotracer, called FDT, enables PET scans to be used for the first time ...