Nearly three-quarters of the United States population receives drinking water that contains fluoride, a practice that began in 1945 to help prevent tooth decay. But recent studies suggest that fluoride exposure can cause harm to a fetus if consumed during pregnancy, a critical period for brain development. A new study, led by researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, analyzed more than 220 mother-child pairs, collecting data on fluoride levels during pregnancy and child behavior at age three. The researchers found that a 0.68 milligram per ...

When migrating through Ukraine in 2022, Greater Spotted Eagles were exposed to multiple conflict events that altered their migratory course, according to a study reported on May 20 in the journal Current Biology. Greater Spotted Eagles are large raptors that are classified as a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).  “Armed conflicts can have wide-ranging impacts on the environment, including changes in animal behavior,” says Charlie Russell (@CJG_Russell) of the University of East Anglia, UK. “Our ...

A new study reveals for the first time the impact of ongoing conflicts on the migration of an endangered bird species. Researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA), the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and the Estonian University of Life Sciences compared the movement and migration of the Greater Spotted Eagle through Ukraine, before and shortly after it was invaded by Russia in February 2022. They were already studying the species when the war started, with the dangers faced by migratory birds usually related to disruptive weather or drought, changes in land use affecting traditional stopping-off ...

Higher fluoride levels in pregnant women are linked to increased odds of their children exhibiting neurobehavioral problems at age 3, according to a new study led by a University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions researcher. The findings, based on an analysis involving 229 mother-child pairs living in a U.S. community with typical fluoride exposure levels for pregnant women in fluoridated regions in North America, appear May 20 in the journal JAMA Network Open. It is believed to be the first U.S.-based study to examine associations of prenatal fluoride exposure ...

Columbia Engineers use nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to examine lithium metal batteries through a new lens -- their findings may help them design new electrolytes and anode surfaces for high-performance batteries New York, NY—May 20, 2024—A Columbia Engineering team has published a paper in the journal Joule today that details how nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy techniques can be leveraged to design the anode surface in lithium metal batteries. The researchers also present new data and interpretations for how this method can be used to gain unique insight into the structure of these surfaces to share with the field.  “We ...

In the age of smartwatches, monitoring step counts has never been easier, but current physical activity guidelines do not explicitly recommend specific step counts for health. A new study from researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of Mass General Brigham, suggests that both step and time-based exercise targets are equivalently associated with lower risks of early death and cardiovascular disease. Thus, whether one chooses a time or step goal may not be as important as choosing a goal aligned with personal preferences. Results are published in JAMA Internal Medicine. Physical activity reduces the risk of acquiring chronic illness and ...

About The Study: In this cross-sectional study of patients with cancer and SARS-CoV-2, racial and ethnic inequities existed in treatment delays and discontinuations throughout the pandemic; however, the disproportionate burden among racially and ethnically minoritized patients with cancer varied across SARS-CoV-2 waves. These inequities may lead to downstream adverse impacts on cancer mortality among minoritized adults in the United States. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Jessica Y. Islam, Ph.D., M.P.H., email jessica.islam@moffitt.org. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.12050) Editor’s ...

About The Study: Adolescents with overweight or obesity may be more vulnerable to negative cognitive effects following sleep restriction. Improved sleep hygiene and duration in this group may positively impact their cognitive health.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Aaron D. Fobian, Ph.D., email afobian@uabmc.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2024.1332) Editor’s ...

A surprisingly low amount of methane and a super-sized core hide within the cotton candy–like planet WASP-107 b. The revelations, based on data obtained by the James Webb Space Telescope, mark the first measurements of an exoplanet’s core mass and will likely underpin future studies of planetary atmospheres and interiors, a key aspect in the search for habitable worlds beyond our solar system. “Looking into the interior of a planet hundreds of light-years away sounds almost impossible, but when you know the mass, radius, atmospheric composition, and hotness of its interior, you’ve got ...

Micelles assemble in water from amphiphilic molecules, composed of hydrophilic and hydrophobic frameworks. They can be found all around us, for example in soaps, detergents, and shampoos. Their main application is the water-solubilization of insoluble molecules through encapsulation into hydrophobic cavities. These cavities are conventionally composed of linear alkyl-chains, providing good interactions with alkyl-based guests, yet poor interactions with aromatic compounds. In addition, the rather weak intermolecular alkyl-alkyl type ...

BALTIMORE, Md. (May 20, 2024) – Scientists seeking to counter the neglect of African Americans in neuroscience research have found evidence that genetic ancestry is responsible for the increased prevalence of certain neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease and stroke, and decreased prevalence of others, including Parkinson’s disease, in Black Americans, according to new research published May 20 as the June cover story in the journal Nature Neuroscience.  In contrast, the scientists from the Lieber Institute for Brain Development did not find evidence that genetic ancestry is responsible for differences in the ...

Researchers at the University of California San Diego have been awarded a $5.6 million grant through the Coast-to-Coast Consortium (C2C) to further their pioneering efforts with the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) All of Us Research Program. The award is designated to facilitate participant engagement, enrollment, data collection, and retention. C2C will build on the foundation set by the UCSD-led California Precision Medicine Consortium (CAPMC), established in 2018, which enrolled more than 65,500 participants to the program. This award follows the program's ...

BEER-SHEVA, Israel, May 20, 2024 – When you disable the brakes on a race car, it quickly crashes. Dr. Barak Rotblat wants to do something similar to brain cancer cells. He wants to disable their ability to survive glucose starvation. In fact, he wants to speed the tumor cells up, so they just as quickly die out. It is a novel approach to brain cancer based on a decade of research in his lab. He and his students' and co-lead researcher Gabriel Leprivier of the Institute of Neuropathology at University Hospital Düsseldorf ...

A sweeping new Health Blueprint for Southwest Virginia highlights the grave health challenges that grip the rural region but also proposes solutions to help residents live longer, healthier lives. The Blueprint was assembled by the University of Virginia College at Wise’s Healthy Appalachia Institute, the Southwest Virginia Health Authority, UVA Health’s Center for Telehealth and a coalition of residents and regional healthcare providers. The document identifies priority health concerns for the three health districts in the southwestern corner of Virginia: Lenowisco, Cumberland Plateau and Mount Rogers. These are areas ...

About The Study: Many studies suggest a survival benefit for cancer trial participants. However, these benefits were not detected in studies using designs addressing important sources of bias and confounding. Pooled results of high-quality studies are not consistent with a beneficial effect of trial participation on its own.  Quote from corresponding author Jonathan Kimmelman, Ph.D.: “Many physicians, policymakers, patient advocates, and research sponsors believe patients have better outcomes when they participate in trials, even if they are in the comparator arm. Educational ...

Fukuoka, Japan—From the rain drops rolling down your window, to the fluid running across a COVID rapid test, we cannot go a day without observing the world of fluid dynamics. Naturally, how liquids traverse across, and through, surfaces are a heavily researched subject, where new discoveries can have profound effects in the fields of energy conversion technology, electronics cooling, biosensors, and micro-/nano-fabrications. Now, using mathematical modeling and experimentation, researchers from Kyushu University’s Faculty of Engineering have expanded on a fundamental principle in fluid dynamics. Their new findings may ...

ATLANTA - Chemical Insights Research Institute (CIRI) of UL Research Institutes applies cutting edge technologies to evaluate the toxicity of burn-impacted land areas affected by the August 2023 Lahaina wildfires. Created with CIRI research partners from Duke University and the East-West Center (EWC) in Hawai’i, the study known as Lahaina Environmental Assessment Project (LEAP), will collect and analyze residual dust, soil and ash samples from properties affected by the fires. These residues, including fine dust, ...

PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA [May 20, 2024] — The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) today announced publication of new NCCN Guidelines for Patients®: Small Bowel Adenocarcinoma. This free resource for people facing cancer and caregivers is focused on a rare cancer type that typically occurs in the small intestine, where routine screening is impossible, even for high-risk individuals. The small amount of patient information that exists for this cancer type tends to combine it with other cancers of the small intestine (such as sarcomas, neuroendocrine tumors, or lymphomas) despite very different treatment approaches and results. The NCCN Guidelines for Patients: ...

Groundbreaking research has provided new insight into the tectonic plate shifts that create some of the Earth’s largest earthquakes and tsunamis. “This is the first study to employ coastal geology to reconstruct the rupture history of the splay fault system,” said Jessica DePaolis, postdoctoral fellow in Virginia Tech's Department of Geosciences. “These splay faults are closer to the coast, so these tsunamis will be faster to hit the coastline than a tsunami generated only from ...

In 2023, Antarctic sea ice reached historically low levels, with over 2 million square kilometres less ice than usual during winter – equivalent to about ten times the size of the UK. This drastic reduction followed decades of steady growth in sea ice up to 2015, making the sudden decline even more surprising. Using a large climate dataset called CMIP6, BAS researchers investigated this unprecedented sea ice loss. They analysed data from 18 different climate models to understand the probability of such a significant reduction in sea ice and its connection to climate change. Lead author Rachel Diamond explained that while 2023's extreme ...

For hundreds of years, the whitespotted eagle ray (Aetobatus narinari) has been considered the only inshore stingray species in Bermuda, until now. Using citizen science, photographs, on-water observations and the combination of morphological and genetic data, researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and collaborators are the first to provide evidence that the Atlantic cownose ray (Rhinoptera bonasus) has recently made a new home in Bermuda. Because ...

For many patients with a deadly type of brain cancer called glioblastoma, chemotherapy resistance is a big problem. Current standard treatments, including surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy using the drug temozolomide, have limited effectiveness and have not significantly changed in the past five decades.  Although temozolomide can initially slow tumor progression in some patients, typically the tumor cells rapidly become resistant to the drug. But now, Virginia Tech researchers with the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC may ...

In today's medical landscape, precision medicine and targeted therapies are gaining traction for their ability to tailor treatments to individual patients while minimizing adverse effects. Conventional methods, such as gene transfer techniques, show promise in delivering therapeutic genes directly to cells to address various diseases. However, these methods face significant drawbacks, hindering their efficacy and safety. Intracellular protein delivery offers a promising approach for developing safer, more targeted, and effective therapies. By directly transferring proteins into target cells, this method circumvents issues such as silencing ...

HOUSTON – (May 20, 2024) – Rice University chemist Julian West is one of a dozen up-and-coming young scientists featured in Chemical & Engineering News’ (C&EN) 2024 Talented 12, an annual issue of the weekly news magazine that highlights rising stars across all chemistry research disciplines. West, an assistant professor and the Norman Hackerman-Welch Young Investigator in Rice’s Department of Chemistry, is a synthetic chemist whose lab designs novel chemical reactions. Drawing inspiration from biology, West’s research group has found ways to simplify the production of entire libraries of feedstock chemicals ...

VANCOUVER, Wash. – Using more robots to close labor gaps in the hospitality industry may backfire and cause more human workers to quit, according to a Washington State University study. The study, involving more than 620 lodging and food service employees, found that “robot-phobia” – specifically the fear that robots and technology will take human jobs – increased workers’ job insecurity and stress, leading to greater intentions to leave their jobs. The impact was more pronounced with employees who had ...