In recent years, a new era of transportation innovation has unfolded with the introduction of autonomous electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircrafts. These advanced air mobility (AAM) systems are poised to revolutionize urban and regional transportation by offering efficient, sustainable, and rapid transit solutions, potentially transforming daily commutes and cargo deliveries alike. eVTOL technology, which enables aircrafts to ascend, hover, and land vertically, has become a focus for both academic research and commercial ventures due to its numerous advantages ...

Singapore, 24 June 2024 – A study led by clinician-scientists and scientists from the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) and A*STAR’s Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) and funded by the National Research Foundation Singapore (NRF) has discovered unexpected molecular heterogeneity even within the same liver tumours. More than 40% of HCC harbours more than one molecular subtype within the same tumour and in these, the clinical outcomes for the patients are best predicted by the most aggressive subtype. This phenomenon, termed the “bad apple effect”, has significant implications on the understanding of liver cancer and suggests that a more holistic sampling ...

New Haven, Conn. — Rising health care prices in the U.S. are leading employers outside the health care sector to reduce their payroll and decrease their number of employees, according to a new study co-authored by Yale economist Zack Cooper.  The study, published June 24 as a working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), found that when health care prices increased, non-health care employers responded by reducing their payroll and cutting the jobs of middle-class workers. For the average county, a 1% increase in health ...

Press materials are now available for NUTRITION 2024, the annual flagship meeting of the American Society for Nutrition (ASN). Top nutrition scientists and practitioners from around the world will gather to share the latest research findings on food and nutrition during the meeting, held in Chicago from June 29–July 2. Register for a press pass to attend NUTRITION 2024 in person or to access embargoed press materials before the meeting. Explore the meeting schedule, poster presentations, poster theater flash sessions and oral presentations to see all the exciting research ...

Ann Arbor, June 24, 2024 – Alcohol consumption is involved in a large proportion of homicides and suicides each year in the United States, but there has been limited evidence on how policies targeting alcohol use influence violence. A statistical analysis in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier, indicates that more restrictive alcohol policy environments are associated with a reduction in specific states’ homicide rates. Lead investigator James P. Murphy, PhD, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, says, "Previous studies have found a significant relationship between some state-level ...

The stereotype of mathematics and mathematicians involves a solitary pursuit of knowledge, but Eric Stachura knows better. The Kennesaw State University assistant professor of mathematics works on quantitative analysis of electromagnetic waves and keeps a collaborative research practice with colleagues near and far. That partnership has led to a three-year grant worth $223,206 from the Army Research Office, a director of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory. “It is a very collaborative subject, ...

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has partnered with the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to provide approximately $15.4 million over three years for research into the structures, functions and interactions of ribonucleic acid (RNA), as well as the creation of RNA-based technologies. RNA sequencing and the mapping of RNA modifications have gained significant momentum in the genomics community in recent years, with a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine outlining a roadmap for the field to build technology and infrastructure to allow researchers to more completely study and catalog RNA and its modifications.  “A ...

INDIANAPOLIS – One of the first studies to examine patient acceptability of teleneurology and determine factors influencing acceptability across neurological conditions, has found teleneurology was highly acceptable across the full range of patients with different neurological diagnoses, including headache, movement disorders and other neurological symptoms and diagnoses. The study also determined that the more medical complexity -- having additional diseases -- was associated with increased patient satisfaction with teleneurology. Older patients were as accepting of teleneurology as younger patients, individuals often viewed as more ...

Image generator models – systems that produce new images based on textual descriptions – have become a common and well-known phenomenon in the past year. Their continuous improvement, largely relying on developments in the field of artificial intelligence, makes them an important resource in various fields.   To achieve good results, these models are trained on vast amounts of image-text pairs – for example, matching the text "picture of a dog" to a picture of a dog, repeated millions of times. Through this training, ...

The function of non-coding RNA in the cell has long been a mystery to researchers. Unlike coding RNA, non-coding RNA does not produce proteins – yet it exists in large quantities. A research team from the University of Göttingen has now discovered an important function of antisense RNA (asRNA): the researchers found that asRNA acts as a "superhighway" in cell transport and thus accelerates gene expression. The results were published in Nature.   RNA (ribonucleic acid) plays a central role in the translation of DNA information into proteins. There are different types of RNA, one of which is known as messenger ...

Video: https://youtu.be/bGKA32TlVXM?si=0PdhaUyOKH33DFbB Meet CARMEN, short for Cognitively Assistive Robot for Motivation and Neurorehabilitation–a small, tabletop robot designed to help people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) learn skills to improve memory, attention, and executive functioning at home.  Unlike other robots in this space, CARMEN was developed by the research team at the University of California San Diego in collaboration with clinicians, people with MCI, and their care partners. To the best of the researchers’ knowledge, CARMEN is also the only robot that teaches compensatory cognitive strategies to help improve memory and executive function. “We ...

New York University has established the Center for Mind, Ethics, and Policy, which aims to further our understanding of the sentience and moral status of nonhumans, notably animals and AI systems.  “The world contains quintillions of animals, and in the future, it could contain an even larger number of AI systems,” says Jeff Sebo, CMEP’s founding director and a professor in NYU’s Department of Environmental Studies. “Human activity is increasingly shaping the lives of these beings, and these trends raise important and difficult questions, such as: Which of these beings are sentient, ...

Whether it’s physical phenomena, share prices or climate models – many dynamic processes in our world can be described mathematically with the aid of partial differential equations. Thanks to stochastics – an area of mathematics which deals with probabilities – this is even possible when randomness plays a role in these processes. Something researchers have been working on for some decades now are so-called stochastic partial differential equations. Working together with other researchers, Dr. Markus Tempelmayr ...

CLEVELAND—With a new five-year, $2.78 million grant from the National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute, researchers at Case Western Reserve University(CWRU), Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals (UH) will use artificial intelligence (AI) to better treat rectal cancer patients. The American Cancer Society estimates about 46,000 people nationally will be diagnosed this year with rectal cancer—the third most common type of cancer in the digestive system, after colon and pancreatic cancer. By using AI, the researchers intend to derive specific metrics on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to better understand how ...

Terahertz technology could help us meet the ever-increasing demand for faster data transfer rates. However, the down-conversion of a terahertz signal to arbitrary lower frequencies is difficult. In a recent study, researchers from Japan have developed a new strategy to up- and down-convert a terahertz signal in a waveguide by dynamically modifying its conductivity using light, creating a temporal boundary. Their findings could pave the way to faster and more efficient optoelectronics and enhanced telecommunications.    As we plunge deeper into the Information Age, the demand for faster data transmission keeps soaring, accentuated by fast progress in fields like deep learning ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists have identified a potential driver of aggressive lung cancer tumors in patients who live in areas with high levels of violent crime. Their study found that stress responses differ between those living in neighborhoods with higher and lower levels of violent crime, and between cancerous and healthy tissues in the same individuals. The findings are detailed in the journal Cancer Research Communications. The study was designed to address the higher incidence of lung cancer in Black men than in white men, said University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ...

PHILADELPHIA, June 24, 2024 — About 80% of an individual’s modifiable health contributors are determined by social and economic factors.[1] Exposure to violence can have detrimental health implications contributing to toxic stress and trauma, mental health illness, substance abuse and an increased risk for heart disease[2]. The American Heart Association, which marked 100 years of service saving lives earlier this month, has distributed $480,000 from the Association’s Bernard J. Tyson Impact Fund to four social ...

Aniline or nitrogen-containing organic molecules like 3-aniline-substituted indoles commonly found in natural products have shown promising results as pharmaceutical contenders. The same goes for moieties such as 2-aminoaryl acetic acid scaffold which forms the fundamental structural motif of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as diclofenac which inhibits COX-2 to relieve pain and inflammation. While there are several ways of synthesizing these molecules individually using different starting materials, can we produce them ...

It’s summer and time to enjoy the sunshine. But it’s also important to do so safely. Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States—and it’s most commonly caused by sun exposure. Research has shown that skin self-awareness and regular skin self-examinations are strongly linked to better treatment outcomes if you receive a skin cancer diagnosis.  As part of an effort to identify effective interventions to increase skin self-examinations and decrease melanoma deaths, faculty ...

University of Texas at Dallas researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) model that could help electrical grids prevent power outages by automatically rerouting electricity in milliseconds. The UT Dallas researchers, who collaborated with engineers at the University at Buffalo in New York, demonstrated the automated system in a study published online June 4 in Nature Communications. The approach is an early example of “self-healing grid” technology, which uses AI to detect and repair problems such as outages ...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating the development of new materials. A prerequisite for AI in materials research is large-scale use and exchange of data on materials, which is facilitated by a broad international standard. A major international collaboration now presents an extended version of the OPTIMADE standard. New technologies in areas such as energy and sustainability involving for example batteries, solar cells, LED lighting and biodegradable materials require new materials. Many researchers around the world are working to create materials that have not existed before. But there are major challenges in creating materials ...

iPS cell-derived expandable immortalized megakaryocyte progenitor cell lines (imMKCLs) represent a renewable means to produce large amounts of platelets ex vivo for transfusion. Despite generating 100 billion (1011) competent iPS cell-derived platelets using a 10-L tank system previously by recreating turbulent flow with optimal turbulent energy and shear stress, true industrial-scale manufacturing is necessary for a consistent supply of transfusable platelets for patients with thrombocytopenia and other platelet disorders. As such, the team began this study by developing a 50 L good manufacturing practices (GMP) grade, single-use United States Pharmacopoeia ...

In a pooled analysis of three clinical trials, acupuncture significantly reduced hot flashes and other hormonal side effects of endocrine therapy taken by women with breast cancer. The analysis of data from the United States, China, and South Korea is published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. Endocrine therapy, which blocks hormone signaling that drives some forms of breast cancer, can be a life-saving treatment, but up to 80% of patients who take it experience hot flashes—a ...

A novel technique with potential applications for fields such as droplet chemistry and photochemistry has been demonstrated by an Osaka Metropolitan University-led research group. Professor Yasuyuki Tsuboi of the Graduate School of Science and the team investigated Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET), a phenomenon seen in photosynthesis and other natural processes where a donor molecule in an excited state transfers energy to an acceptor molecule. Using dyes to mark the donor and acceptor molecules, the team set out to see if FRET could be controlled by the intensity of an optical force, in this case a laser beam. By focusing a laser beam on an isolated polymer droplet, the team ...

Background In the realm of fusion research, the control of plasma density, temperature, and heating is crucial for enhancing reactor performance. Effective confinement of plasma particles and heat, especially maintaining high density and temperature at the core where fusion occurs is essential. In the Large Helical Device (LHD)*1, challenges persist as the electron density profile often remains flat or even depressed at the center, complicating effort to sustain high central density.   Results The LHD is equipped with five neutral beam (NB) injectors*3 for plasma ...