New research led by King’s College London has found that thousands of DNA sequences originating from ancient viral infections are expressed in the brain, with some contributing to susceptibility for psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression. Published in Nature Communications, the study was part-funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). About eight percent of our genome is comprised of sequences called Human Endogenous Retroviruses (HERVs), which are products of ancient viral infections ...

The discovery of thousands of stone artefacts and animal bones in a deep cave in Timor Island has led archaeologists to reassess the route that early humans took to reach Australia. Researchers from The Australian National University (ANU), Flinders University, University College London (UCL) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage dated and analysed the artefacts and sediment at the Laili rock shelter in central-north Timor-Leste, north of Australia, to pinpoint the arrival ...

Background and objectives About 30% of lung cancer patients are accessible to targeted therapy or immunotherapy based on the current criteria. In this study, a novel gene cluster expression analysis was introduced with a goal to potentially expand the treatments to more patients based on the proposed criteria.   Methods Selected gene expression omnibus data sets were downloaded, normalized, and analyzed. A univariate recurrence prediction model was built based on the receiver operating characteristic, for which an optimal cutoff was determined to set abnormality status, called ...

Javier Pérez Barbuzano, Aisling Irwin, Ruairi Mackenzie, Jacopo Pasotti, Samuel Schlaefli, Vedrana Simičević, and Zuzana Vitková are the chosen candidates for the inaugural round of the FRONTIERS Residency Program. This ERC-supported initiative will finance journalists to spend 3 to 5 months at a European research institution. Originating from Spain, Slovakia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, and Croatia, the selected journalists will develop their journalistic projects, during their residencies in scientific institutions. The initiative will award a monthly ...

A new Child Development study from researchers at the University of Virginia provides the first long-term, longitudinal evidence for the transmission of empathic care across three generations: from mother to teen to child.  The findings suggest that interactions with close friends in adolescence may provide a “training ground” in which teens can practice providing care in their peer relationships and pay forward the empathy they experience from their mothers, which may help strengthen their future parenting skills. For families and service providers, ...

Cambridge scientists have shown that problems regulating emotions – which can manifest as depression, anxiety and explosive outbursts – may be a core symptom of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In research published in Nature Mental Health, the team found that as many as one in two children with ADHD show signs of emotional dysregulation, and that Ritalin – the commonly-prescribed drug to help the condition – appears to be less effective at treating this symptom. ADHD affects around ...

Philadelphia, May 22, 2024 – Obesity and metabolic disorders are increasingly significant global public health issues. In a novel study, a team of dermatologists evaluated the effect of ultraviolet (UV) exposure on appetite and weight regulation. They found that UV exposure raises norepinephrine levels, decreases leptin levels, and induces the browning of subcutaneous fat, thereby increasing energy expenditure. These results potentially pave the way for new approaches to prevent and treat obesity and metabolic disorders. Their findings appear in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, published by Elsevier. UV ...

It’s well established that babies in the womb hear and learn about speech, at least in the third trimester. For example, newborns have been shown to already prefer the voice of their mother, recognize a story that had been repeatedly told to them while in the womb, and tell apart their mother’s native language. What wasn’t known until now was how developing fetuses learn about speech when their mother speaks to them in a mix of languages. Yet this is common: there are 3.3 billion bilingual people (43% of the population) worldwide, and in many countries, bilingualism or multilingualism is the norm.   “Here we show that exposure to monolingual or a bilingual speech ...

A team from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, a centre supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation, and the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), has carried out an analysis of hospital admissions related to high summer temperatures in Spain over more than a decade. The study concludes that the causes of hospitalisation in which the heat has the most notable impact are: Metabolic disorders and obesity Renal failure Urinary tract infection Sepsis Urolithiasis Poisoning by drugs and other non-medicinal substances The research, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, included ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – If someone collapsed after going into cardiac arrest, would you be prepared to help? For nearly half of Americans, the answer is no. A new survey from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center finds many Americans are ill-prepared to help in emergency situations.  The national poll of 1,005 people found only 51% of Americans feel they would be able to perform hands-only CPR in an emergency. When it comes to serious bleeding, 49% said they could step in to help. And 56% of survey ...

Bottom Line: The risk of detecting cervical precancer eight years after a negative human papillomavirus (HPV) screening was found to be similar to the risk after three years (the commonly recommended screening interval) after a negative cytology screening. Journal in Which the Study was Published: Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Authors: Anna Gottschlich, PhD, MPH, assistant professor at Wayne State School of Medicine and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute Background: ...

Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in new energy vehicles due to their low self-discharge rate and long cycle life. Currently, the anode material of commercial lithium-ion batteries mainly adopts graphite, with a theoretical capacity of only 372 mAh g-1 — which has gradually failed to meet the increasing demand for energy density. Silicon has been widely studied by virtue of its high theoretical capacity of 4200 mAh g-1. However, silicon produces volume changes of up to 300% during lithiation and delithiation, and the ensuing mechanical degradation and capacity loss hinder applications. To reduce the adverse effects caused by mechanical deformation, silicon structure optimization ...

An Oregon State University study found evidence that Indigenous groups in the Pacific Northwest were intentionally harvesting edible camas bulbs at optimal stages of the plant’s maturation as far back as 3,500 years ago. The findings contribute to the growing body of research around Traditional Ecological Knowledge and practices, demonstrating the care and specificity with which Indigenous groups have been stewarding and cultivating natural resources for millennia. Camas is an ecological and cultural keystone, meaning it is a species that many other organisms depend on and that features prominently within many cultural practices. “If you think about salmon as being a charismatic ...

Regular use of fish oil supplements might increase, rather than lessen, the risk of first time heart disease and stroke among those in good cardiovascular health, but may slow progression of existing poor cardiovascular health and lower the risk of death, suggest the results of a large long term study, published in the open access journal BMJ Medicine.   Fish oil is a rich source of omega 3 fatty acids, and as such, is recommended as a dietary preventive to ward off the development of cardiovascular disease. But the evidence on how much protection it affords is inconclusive, explain the researchers. To strengthen the evidence base, they set out to estimate the associations ...

Some teenage girls are clocking up close to 6 hours a day on their smartphones, with a significant proportion of them likely addicted to social media, finds research published online in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood. Social media addiction was associated with poorer health and wellbeing, the findings indicate. Recent research has linked increasing levels of anxiety among teen girls with social media use, note the researchers. This may involve several factors, one of which is addiction, with  estimated international prevalence ranging from 5% to 31%, they add. Because both anxiety and social media use are more common among girls, the researchers wanted to: measure ...

Pedestrians may be twice as likely to be hit by an electric or hybrid car as those powered by petrol or diesel, finds a study of 2013-17 casualty rates in Great Britain, and published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. The risk is greater in urban areas, and governments must take steps to mitigate this safety hazard as they proceed to phase out fossil fuelled vehicles to improve air quality and curb climate change, urge the researchers. Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death for children and young people, and 1 in 4 road traffic deaths are of pedestrians, they note.  Amid ...

Scientists have used breast cancer cells’ weakness against themselves by linking a tumour-selective antibody with a cell-killing drug to destroy hard-to-treat tumours. The research, published today in Clinical Cancer Research by a team from King’s College London and funded by Breast Cancer Now, marks a new method in cancer treatment. The discovery is particular to triple negative breast cancer, which makes up 15% of all diagnosed breast cancer. This type of breast cancer is typically aggressive, resistant to chemotherapy, has a lower survival rate and is more common in women under 40. Usual treatment involves surgery, chemotherapy ...

EMBARGO: WEDNESDAY 22 MAY, 00:01 BST (TUESDAY 21 MAY, 19:01 ET).  Changes to the definitions of conceptual words like ‘woke’ and ‘gaslighting’ are harming our ability to communicate and understand our experiences, a Leeds academic argues. In a new paper published in The Philosophical Quarterly journal, an ethicist at the University of Leeds has coined a term for the harm caused when language change leaves us lost for words. Words such as ‘woke’, ‘depression’, ...

Dogs with Indigenous ancestry were eaten during a period of starvation at Jamestown, the first English settlement in North America in the 17th century, according to new research in American Antiquity, published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for American Archaeology. This discovery changes historians’ understanding of how Indigenous communities negotiated their relationship with rising colonial powers during this period. It also suggests that early European colonists depended on local Indigenous communities for their very survival, especially during the initial settlement period. Researchers analysed ancient mitochondrial DNA from archaeological dogs from Jamestown ...

Australia lacks fearsome large carnivores like lions and wolves, and the relative lack of fear that marsupials like kangaroos and wallabies show to dogs (and other introduced carnivores) has been attributed to a lack of evolutionary experience with large mammalian predators. This, however, overlooks the 50,000-year-long presence in Australia of the world’s most fearsome predator – the human ‘super predator.’    A new study conducted by Western University biology professor Liana Zanette, in collaboration with Calum ...

NEW YORK – May 21, 2024 – The Cardiovascular Research Foundation® (CRF®) has announced New York Valves: The Structural Heart Summit will feature 12 Late-Breaking Clinical Trials and Science presentations. New York Valves 2024, the expanded iteration of our renowned annual Transcatheter Valve Therapy (TVT®) conference, will take place June 5-7, 2024, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, North in New York City. For nearly two decades, CRF® has led the way in pioneering transcatheter therapies for structural heart ...

EMBARGOED UNTIL: 2:15 p.m. PT, May 21, 2024 Session:  C94 - Asthma Quality Improvement, Health Services Research, and Disparities Utilization of Single Maintenance and Reliever Therapy (SMART) for Moderate and Severe Asthma Date and Time: Tuesday, May 21, 2024, 2:15 p.m. Location:  San Diego Convention Center, Room 28A-B (Upper Level)   ATS 2024, San Diego – Only 14.5 percent of adult patients with moderate or severe asthma are prescribed the recommended SMART combination inhaler regimen and over 40 percent of academic pulmonary and allergy clinicians have not adopted this optimal therapy, according to research published ...

Hemangiosarcoma is a common and aggressive type of cancer in dogs that arises from blood vessel cells and spreads very quickly, throughout the body, frequently affecting the spleen, liver, heart and muscles, among other organs. “Because this type of cancer comes from blood vessels, it is common for these tumors to suddenly cause massive bleeding into the abdomen or chest,” says Heather Gardner, D.V.M., Ph.D., DACVIM (Oncology), GBS20. “Often when a dog is diagnosed, it is an emergency due to the blood loss associated with tumor rupture. They can have other problems related to hemangiosarcoma, such as lethargy, weakness, and ...

The skin or peel of the Jaboticaba berry (Plinia jaboticaba), a native of the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest, is usually thrown away because of its astringency (due to an abundance of mouth-puckering tannins), yet it can be a powerful ally in the treatment of obesity and metabolic syndrome, according to an article published in the journal Nutrition Research. Conducted by researchers at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in São Paulo state (Brazil), the study showed that inflammation and blood sugar levels improved in volunteers with obesity and metabolic syndrome who took 15 g per day of powdered jaboticaba peel as a dietary supplement for five weeks. “The ...

New Rochelle, NY, May 21, 2024—A new study in the peer-reviewed Journal of Neurotrauma contends that a significant fraction of traumatic intracranial aneurysms (TICAs) is missed on initial contrasted scans of patients suffering a civilian gunshot wound to the head (cGSWH). The study was designed to characterize acute TICAs using admission CT angiography (aCTA). Click here to read the article now. The study showed that the presence of an intracerebral hematoma was the main predictor of TICA in cGSWH. Larger intracerebral hematomas in patients with cGSWH suggest hidden TICAs. “When CTA was performed acutely, TICAs were ...