For release: May 13, 2024 Ithaca, NY—The Giant Hummingbird of western South America is not one species but two, according to an international group of researchers. The northern population stays in the high Andes year-round while the southern population migrates from sea level up to 14,000 feet for the nonbreeding months. The two species appear identical. But looks deceive—their genomes and behaviors tell a different story. The paper announcing the find was published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.   “These ...

In the weeks before and after the 2020 presidential election, researchers ran a number of tests to try to understand how much Facebook and its corporate cousin, Instagram, may be contributing to the nation's political divide. One of those experiments — led by Matthew Gentzkow and Hunt Allcott, economics professors at Stanford University — centered on more than 35,000 Facebook and Instagram users who were paid to stay off the platforms in the run-up to Election Day. There’s a lot that researchers could glean from the social media hiatus, including whether people’s political attitudes shifted and in what ways. If views changed dramatically, that ...

Researchers from UNM’s Museum of Southwestern Biology (MSB) have uncovered the giant hummingbird’s extreme long-distance migration for the first time. Their eight-year study, Extreme elevational migration spurred cryptic speciation in giant hummingbirds published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, led them to another important discovery: The world’s largest hummingbird is a new species. The team, led by Jessie Williamson, UNM Ph.D., 2022, included the Museum of Southwestern Biology at UNM, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in Chile, and Centro de Ornitología ...

A newly discovered Zika virus-specific synthetic molecule is capable of differentiating Zika-immune patient samples from samples of patients previously infected with the related dengue virus. The technology may lead to the development of better diagnostics and vaccine candidates, scientists announced today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study, led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health and The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology, is the first to apply an innovative “epitope surrogate” technology to Zika. Until now, researchers and clinicians have lacked diagnostic ...

A way to curb nagging insects has been flying under our radar—an enzyme from fruit fly testes. The compound could control bugs that carry disease and harm crops by stunting their ability to procreate, Johns Hopkins University researchers found. “We have a toe in the door to control fruit fly populations with this enzyme,” said Steven Rokita, a professor of chemistry at Johns Hopkins who led the research. “It could offer a good way to control fertility of all kinds of biological and agricultural pests, starting with mosquito populations.” The findings are set to publish ...

1. A NIMS research team has demonstrated for the first time ever that a simple stack of thermoelectric and magnetic material layers can exhibit a substantially larger transverse thermoelectric effect—energy conversion between electric and heat currents that flow orthogonally to each other within it—than existing magnetic materials capable of exhibiting the anomalous Nernst effect. This mechanism may be used to develop new types of thermoelectric devices useful in energy harvesting and heat flux sensing. 2. Seebeck effect-based ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Today’s rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide increase is 10 times faster than at any other point in the past 50,000 years, researchers have found through a detailed chemical analysis of ancient Antarctic ice. The findings, just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provide important new understanding of abrupt climate change periods in Earth’s past and offer new insight into the potential impacts of climate change today. “Studying the ...

Researchers from the Kops group in collaboration with researchers from the University of Edinburgh, made a surprising new discovery in the structure of the centromere, a structure that is involved in ensuring that chromosomes are segregated properly when a cell divides. Mistakes in chromosome segregation can lead to cell death and cancer development. The researchers discovered that the centromere consists of two subdomains. This fundamental finding has important implications for the process of chromosome segregation and provides new mechanisms underlying erroneous divisions in cancer cells. The research was published in Cell on May 13th 2024. Our bodies consist of trillions of ...

BATON ROUGE, La. – Ochsner Medical Center - Baton Rouge has earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® and the American Stroke Association’s Heart-Check mark for Acute Stroke Ready Certification.  The designation means OMC-Baton Rouge meets The Joint Commission's designation for readiness to treat patients who experience severe stroke.   To achieve certification, OMC-Baton Rouge underwent a rigorous, unannounced onsite. During the visit, a team of Joint Commission reviewers evaluated compliance with numerous certification standards, including ...

CEHD Researchers Studying Family-Led Early Childhood Systems Change For Educational Equity Colleen Vesely, Associate Professor, College of Education and Human Development (CEHD); Bethany Letiecq, Associate Professor, Research Methods, CEHD; Rochelle Davidson Mhonde, Assistant Professor, Global and Community Health; and Jung Yeon Park, Assistant Professor of Quantitative Research Methods, School of Education, received funding for the project: “Family-Led Early Childhood Systems Change ...

Raz Receives Funding For Intent-Based Orchestration In Distributed Command & Control (IBODC2) Software                                                                                                                      Ali ...

Kelly Receives Funding For Civil War Graffiti Preservation Mills Kelly, Senior Scholar and Former Director, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM); Professor, History, has received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities for: “Off the Wall: Digital Preservation of Civil War Graffiti Houses.” Kelly will use the funding to support the building and publishing of a digital archive focused on soldiers’ graffiti found in Civil War-era structures located in the ...

Suddenly they appear and - like the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus - can trigger major epidemics: Viruses that nobody had on their radar. They are not really new, but they have changed genetically. In particular, the exchange of genetic material between different virus species can lead to the sudden emergence of threatening pathogens with significantly altered characteristics. This is suggested by current genetic analyses carried out by an international team of researchers. Virologists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) were in charge of the large-scale study. “Using a new computer-assisted analysis method, we discovered 40 previously ...

Climate change, biodiversity, infectious diseases, sustainability, and the associated socio-economic impacts are among the areas of greatest global concern. The SIAM Conference on Mathematics of Planet Earth (MPE24) provides a forum for interdisciplinary researchers to discuss mathematical, statistical, and computational strategies for addressing these problems. The discussion at MPE24 will range from the development of quantitative techniques and algorithms to providing policy makers with tools for qualitative decision support. This year, MPE24 is especially interested in sessions and presentations that address fundamental ...

Theoretical and computational aspects of applied mathematical research on nonlinear waves and coherent structures are relevant to subjects as diverse as general relativity, high-energy particle and plasma physics, fluid and solid mechanics, nonlinear electrical circuits, materials science (including metamaterials), Bose-Einstein condensation, nonlinear optics, random media, atmosphere and ocean dynamics, chemical reactions, and biology. Relevant predictions are often tested against physical experiments and open avenues for collaborations and interactions ...

Marcos Zampieri, Assistant Professor, Information Sciences and Technology, received funding for: “Doctoral Consortium at Student Research Workshop at the Annual Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (NAACL).”  Zampieri will use this funding to subsidize travel, conference, and housing expenses of students selected to participate in the NAACL 2024 Student Research Workshop, which will take place during the main NAACL conference on June 16-21, 2024 in Mexico City, Mexico.  The student research workshop welcomes contributions in two categories: 1) thesis proposals, for advanced students who have ...

New research published today sheds light on the positive effects of maintaining natural shoreline structure on freshwater ecosystems, as opposed to armoring them with steel walls or piles of rocks. The study, conducted by Shedd Aquarium, Illinois Department of Natural Resources and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, revealed important trends in fish diversity and abundance along various types of shorelines in the Chicago Area Waterway System (CAWS). The findings indicated both fish species richness and the numbers of fish grew with increasing proportions of natural shoreline. Shoreline armoring, ...

In a new study, researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine say they have uncovered insights as to why lupus symptoms and severity present differently in individuals with the autoimmune condition, which affects up to 1.5 million Americans. The team says this is a crucial step forward in understanding biological mechanisms behind lupus, and may also lead to shifts in how clinicians treat patients with the condition. The full report, published in Cell Reports Medicine on May 13, concludes that specific combinations and elevated levels of immune system proteins, known as interferons, are associated with ...

In the landscape of modern business, inclusion isn't just a buzzword - it's a strategic imperative. Companies like IBM, Volkswagen and Starbucks are moving to more participative strategy development approaches that reflect a growing understanding of the importance of diversity in fostering innovative and creative strategic ideas. Yet the outcomes of inclusive strategy processes often fall short of expectations. A new study in the Strategic Management Journal sheds light on why that may be. In ...

DARIEN, IL — In a new research commentary, the Artificial Intelligence in Sleep Medicine Committee of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine highlights how artificial intelligence stands on the threshold of making monumental contributions to the field of sleep medicine. Through a strategic analysis, the committee examined advancements in AI within sleep medicine and spotlighted its potential in revolutionizing care in three critical areas: clinical applications, lifestyle management, and population health. The committee also reviewed barriers and challenges associated with using AI-enabled technologies. “AI ...

BOSTON - (May 13, 2024) Severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of hospitalizations and deaths around the world, affecting more than five million people each year. Predicting outcomes following a brain injury can be challenging, yet families are asked to make decisions about continuing or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment within days of injury. In a new study, Mass General Brigham investigators analyzed potential clinical outcomes for TBI patients enrolled in the Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in TBI (TRACK-TBI) study for whom life support was withdrawn. The investigators found that some patients for whom ...

WASHINGTON (March 13, 2024)-Harsh political rhetoric about immigrants and anti-immigrant actions can damage parent-child relationships in Latino families and in turn lead to a significant increase in mental health problems for the kids in those families, according to a study published today in JAMA Pediatrics.    “Our research suggests that restrictive immigration policies and harsh rhetoric about immigrants can harm Latino and Latina adolescents,” said Kathleen Roche, lead author of the study and professor ...

About The Study: Cardiovascular biomarkers were strongly associated with fatal and nonfatal cardiovascular events and mortality. The addition of biomarkers to established risk factors led to only a small improvement in risk prediction metrics for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, but was more favorable for heart failure and mortality.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Johannes Tobias Neumann, M.D., Ph.D., email j.neumann@uke.de. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2024.5596) Editor’s Note: Please see the ...

Dispensing abortion pills through the mail works as well as requiring patients to get them in person from a clinic or doctor’s office, according to new research from UC San Francisco, which comes as the Supreme Court is considering whether to disallow the practice.  Researchers found that using a mail-order pharmacy to deliver the drugs after an in-person assessment was both safe and effective, and patients appreciated the privacy and convenience of receiving their abortion medication that way. “The ...

About The Study: In this cohort study of Medicare beneficiaries across all 3,436 hospital service areas (HSAs), high levels of telehealth use were associated with more clinician encounters, more ambulatory care–sensitive hospitalizations, and higher total health care costs. COVID-19 cases were still high during the period of study, which suggests that these findings partially reflect a higher capacity for providing health services in HSAs with higher telehealth intensity than other HSAs.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Sara Parker-Lue, Ph.D., ...