OAK BROOK, Ill. – The structural and functional organization of the brain as shown on MRI can predict the progression of brain atrophy in patients with early-stage, mild Parkinson’s disease, according to a study published today in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Parkinson’s disease is a progressive disorder characterized by tremors, slowness of movement or rigidity. Symptoms worsen over time and may include cognitive impairment and sleep problems. The disease affects more than 8.5 million people worldwide, and prevalence has doubled in the past 25 years, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). One of ...

The School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University has launched the CMU TechBridge Coding Bootcamp to provide access to computer science education and career opportunities for high school (or equivalent) graduates.  The bootcamp will extend the reach of CMU’s computer science education offerings beyond its traditional undergraduate and graduate programs. CMU has partnered with TalentSprint to implement the program to help aspiring professionals build the skills required for launching and ...

Weill Cornell Medicine received a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program to develop new approaches for predicting the spread of cancer cells to the bone in men with prostate cancer, using tumor samples taken at early stages of the disease. The American Cancer Society projects about 35,250 deaths from prostate cancer in the United States in 2024. “Metastases, especially to the bone, is the leading cause of death in men who have prostate cancer,” said principal investigator Dr. Mohamed Omar, assistant professor of research in pathology and laboratory medicine, division ...

“Our work shows that it is possible to re-create a fairly accurate three-dimensional (3D) model of the colon of some patients based on a single image taken by a capsule endoscopy camera - even if it's a low-quality image,” says Pål Anders Floor, a researcher at the Department of Computer Science at NTNU. Goal: better images, faster diagnoses He has been working for several years on using images from capsule endoscopy cameras to reconstruct an almost identical 3D model of the intestines. These cameras were first used more than 20 years ago, but low-quality images and image noise prevented this smart technology from ...

Falls are the most common cause of injury among adults 65 and older in the United States. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every year, more than 14 million older adults (one in four) report a fall. About 90% of head injuries among older individuals is due to ground-level falls. Evaluating an older adult with a head injury in the emergency department (ED) requires careful assessment due to the increased risk of complications such as intracranial hemorrhage. There also is heightened concern for older patients taking anticoagulants or blood thinners who sustain ...

Fertilizers manufactured from the sludgy leftovers of wastewater treatment processes can contain traces of potentially hazardous organic chemicals, according to a new study by Johns Hopkins University researchers.  The research, published today in Environmental Science & Technology journal, provides one of the most comprehensive looks at the chemical composition of so-called biosolids across the country and is the first step toward identifying common chemical contaminants that may need government regulation. The findings could ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — By giving artificial intelligence simple associative learning rules based on the brain circuits that allow a sea slug to forage — and augmenting it with better episodic memory, like that of an octopus — scientists have built an AI that can navigate new environments, seek rewards, map landmarks and overcome obstacles. Reported in the journal Neurocomputing, the new approach gives AI the ability to explore and gather the information it needs to expand its spatial and temporal awareness, growing its knowledge base while learning on the job, said Ekaterina Gribkova, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who ...

The leading hypothesis for the origin of firefly lights has been overturned by a genomic analysis. It had been posited that the bright lights emitted by many species in the Lampyridae family of beetles—better known as fireflies—first evolved as a warning signal to predators, advertising the toxicity of fireflies, and were then repurposed as a mating signal. This explanation would account for why eggs, larvae, and pupae also glow. Ying Zhen and colleagues put the conventional wisdom to the test by compiling a family tree of fireflies and tracing the evolution of the chemical compounds ...

ASAP Launches Data-Sharing Tool with Unique Dataset of Human Postmortem-Derived Brain Samples Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) launched a platform to make high-value data for Parkinson’s disease broadly available to researchers all over the world The platform launches with data from a unique human postmortem-derived brain sequencing collection, including samples from four ASAP Collaborative Research Network (CRN) teams and 156 donors The database will continue to expand, with 629 donors contributing to the final harmonized dataset; there will be a consistent cadence of new ...

In 2018, Arthur Ashkin won the Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing optical tweezers: laser beams that can be used to manipulate microscopic particles. While useful for many biological applications, optical tweezers require extremely controlled, static conditions to work properly. “Optical tweezers work by creating a light ‘hotspot’ to trap particles, like a ball falling into a hole. But if there are other objects in the vicinity, this hole is difficult to create and move around,” says Romain Fleury, head of the Laboratory of Wave Engineering in EPFL’s School ...

With goals to limit CO2 emissions, many countries have set targets to phase out internal combustion vehicles in favor of electric vehicles (EVs). Japan has set a target for 20-30% of all car sales to be battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and 30-40% of car sales to be hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) by 2030. The USA plans for 50% of new vehicles to be zero-emission by 2030, while Germany wants to have 15 million EVs on the road by 2030. These goals raise concerns about the raw material demand for EVs. Batteries, which account for 50% of all resources consumed in BEV production, require ...

Trying to figure out whether someone has Alzheimer’s disease usually involves a battery of assessments—interviews, brain imaging, blood and cerebrospinal fluid tests. But, by then, it’s probably already too late: memories have started slipping away, long established personality traits have begun subtly shifting. If caught early, new pioneering treatments can slow the disease’s remorseless progression, but there’s no surefire way to predict who will develop the dementia associated with Alzheimer’s. Now, Boston University researchers say they have designed a promising new artificial ...

If aliens modified a planet in their solar system to make it warmer, we’d be able to tell. A new UC Riverside study identifies the artificial greenhouse gases that would be giveaways of a terraformed planet. A terraformed planet has been artificially made hospitable for life. The gases described in the study would be detectable even at relatively low concentrations in the atmospheres of planets outside our solar system using existing technology. This could include the James Webb Space Telescope, or a future European-led space telescope concept. And ...

Researchers from Trinity College Dublin’s School of Natural Sciences have revealed a novel route to the formation of bastnäsite, a crucial mineral for the extraction of rare earth elements (REEs). Their work offers promise in one day making the extraction of these REEs more efficient.  The study – published today in the journal Nanoscale – uncovers for first time how fluocerite, a rare mineral, quickly forms and transforms into bastnäsite. The occurrence and origin of fluocerite in natural deposits was not fully understood, ...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Department of Energy has once again awarded Sandia National Laboratories for its work helping small businesses. One of those businesses, owned by a disabled veteran, was also awarded for its extraordinary work. DOE Mentor of the Year Sandia’s small business Mentor-Protégé Program has been named as DOE Mentor of the year, an award it has received for three consecutive years. Now in its fifth year, the program has mentored five protégés from around the country. More than 150 volunteer mentors and support personnel help these small and disadvantaged businesses grow, succeed and navigate doing business ...

PULLMAN, Wash. – Your mom might be a better health influencer than Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Adults in a study who said they looked to a person they knew as role model for good health—such as a friend, relative or healthcare provider—rather than a celebrity, had greater motivation to reach their health goals. The women participants were also more likely than men to choose a personal role model rather than a celebrity. And the person most often named was their own mother. “We know that parents have a huge influence on shaping people’s health trajectories throughout their life just ...

Giant lizards called heath goannas could save Australian sheep farmers millions of dollars a year by keeping blowfly numbers down - and must be prioritised in conservation schemes to boost native wildlife, say researchers. A study led by the University of Cambridge has found that heath goannas - a species of giant, scavenging lizard - act as natural clean-up crews by clearing maggot-ridden animal carcasses from the landscape. This reduces the emergence of blowflies, which attack sheep by laying eggs on their backsides that hatch into flesh-eating maggots. The disease, known as ‘fly strike’, costs the Australian sheep farming industry an estimated $280 million a year. This ...

This process is currently not included in models that predict sea level rise, so the new results could offer a more accurate picture of how the world will change with global warming and how much coastal areas will need to adapt. Carried out by scientists at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the findings are published in the journal Nature Geoscience. “We have identified the possibility of a new tipping-point in Antarctic ice sheet melting,” says Alex Bradley, an ice dynamics researcher ...

We get healthy dietary fibres from consuming fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. But why are the fibres so good for us? A team of researchers has discovered that dietary fibres play a crucial role in determining the balance between the production of healthy and harmful substances by influencing the behaviour of bacteria in the colon. Dietary fibres benefit our health, and scientists from DTU National Food Institute and the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports at the University of Copenhagen have now uncovered an essential part of why this is the case. Different types of bacteria inside our colon compete to utilize an essential amino acid called tryptophan. This competition ...

The largest and most ethnically and geographically comprehensive investigation to date of the gut microbiome of people with type 2 diabetes (T2D), prediabetes, and healthy glucose status has found that specific viruses and genetic variants within bacteria correspond with changes in gut microbiome function and T2D risk. Results of the study—which represents a collaboration across Brigham and Women’s Hospital (a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system), the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health—are published in Nature Medicine. "The microbiome is highly variable across different geographic ...

Abu Dhabi, UAE, June 25, 2024: A team of solar physicists at NYU Abu Dhabi’s Center for Astrophysics and Space Science (CASS), led by Research Scientist Chris S. Hanson, Ph.D., has revealed the interior structure of the sun’s supergranules, a flow structure that transports heat from the sun’s hidden interior to its surface. The researchers’ analysis of the supergranules presents a challenge to the current understanding of solar convection. The sun generates energy in its core through nuclear fusion; that energy is then transported to ...

A genetic variation common in people of African ancestry is associated with an increased risk of complications from diabetes, including diabetic retinopathy, according to a report published June 25 in the journal Nature Medicine.   The investigators found that the diagnosis of diabetes and treatment needed to prevent diabetes complications may be delayed in people who carry the variant, G6PDdef, because it is associated with reduced levels of HbA1c, a widely used clinical marker of blood glucose levels.   Testing for genetic variations that cause G6PD ...

In a groundbreaking new article, a coalition of conservationists and researchers have shown how we can protect Earth’s remaining biodiversity by conserving just a tiny percentage of the planet’s surface. This affordable, achievable plan would make it possible for us to preserve the most threatened species from extinction, safeguarding Earth’s wildlife for the future.    “Most species on Earth are rare, meaning that species either have very narrow ranges or they occur at very low densities ...

Today, the FRONTIERS Science Journalism Initiative opens the second call for applications for its science journalism in residency programme. The application period will remain open until the 25th of September 2024, at 17:00 CEST. Funded by the European Research Council (ERC), this initiative offers science journalists the opportunity to develop independent journalism while spending three to five months in a host research institution, located in an EU Member State or a country associated with the EU’s Horizon Europe Programme. The residency ...

Osaka, Japan — For people in their late 20s, “Your job doesn’t define you” is likely an unconvincing cliché. Osaka Metropolitan University researchers have unveiled critical insights into the intricate relationships between employment status, identity development and life satisfaction among Japanese individuals in late emerging adulthood, or their late 20s, highlighting the importance of stable employment during this pivotal life stage. Their findings were published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence on May 15. Identity reflects a sense of self and is closely ...