NAIROBI, Kenya, 20 April 2023_An international team of researchers, led by Africans, has fully sequenced the genome of a climate resilient bean that could bolster food security in drought-prone regions. The sequencing of the hyacinth bean or ‘lablab bean’ [Lablab purpureus] paves the way for wider cultivation of the crop, bringing nutritional and economic benefits, as well as much needed diversity to the global food system. The plant is native to Africa and is cultivated throughout the tropics producing highly nutritious beans, which are used for food ...

Large-scale circulation anomalies are a key factor in the transportation of water vapor and changes in climate. For tropical and subtropical regions, an atmospheric circulation field not only determines the characteristics of the weather situation but also influences the atmospheric circulation in the middle and high latitudes, as well as the global climate, through the transport of energy and angular momentum. At the same time, whilst lightning can serve as a global tropical “thermometer” and an indicator of water vapor in the upper troposphere, the driving role of the circulation situation for it needs to be further analyzed. In a paper recently ...

During photosynthesis, the green pigment chlorophyll in algae and plants absorbs most of the energy from incoming light. Chlorophyll gets excited and transfers this energy to the energy-harvesting protein complexes photosystem I (PSI) and II (PSII). However, some of this energy dissipates as heat or chlorophyll a fluorescence (ChlF). Changes in the environment or plant physiology that affect PSII also alter ChlF, which can therefore be used as a fast, sensitive, and non-destructive indicator of PSII status. Indeed, ChlF is a powerful tool for assessing multiple aspects of photosynthesis. Though ChlF measurements ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE What: Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2023 Meeting When: April 27 to May 1 Where: Walter E. Washington Convention Center (801 Mt Vernon Pl NW, Washington, DC 20001) Johns Hopkins Children’s Center researchers will present on numerous topics during the PAS 2023 meeting, including: System-Level Approach to Improve First COVID-19 Vaccine Dose Uptake in a Primary Care Setting: The Value of Health Educators Monday, May 1, 1 to 2:30 p.m. Eastern time Convention Center: 204 C Oral Abstract COVID-19 vaccination rates among youth ...

To gain a clearer understanding of the differences between childhood cancer patients when it comes to the impact of radiation therapy on cognition, scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital studied the effect of their environment. Their work showed that children with supportive environments fared better than children living in neighborhoods with economic hardship. Those in areas with greater economic hardship had worse baseline and long-term cognitive outcomes. The results imply that policies and resources providing support at a neighborhood level ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Researchers at The Ohio State University have developed a framework for quantifying how well countries around the world are doing at providing adequate food, energy and water to their citizens without exceeding nature’s capacity to meet those needs.  They found that only 6% of 178 countries provide for all their citizens in an ecologically sustainable way in both carbon sequestration and water consumption. The study found that while 67% of nations operate safely and sustainably in regard to water use, only 9% do in regard to carbon sequestration, ...

The International Vaccine Institute, an international organization with a mission to discover, develop, and deliver safe, effective, and affordable vaccines for global health, began clinical development of DuoChol, a new low-cost oral cholera vaccine (OCV) in capsule form. With funding support from the Wellcome Trust and the Swedish government, IVI is preparing to conduct a Phase I clinical trial of the vaccine in Sweden.   Scientists at the University of Gothenburg developed DuoChol, a dry formulation inactivated bacterial whole cell/cholera toxin B subunit OCV with a similar composition as the world’s first WHO-prequalified OCV, DUKORAL®. ...

Once every 10,000 years or so, the center of a galaxy lights up as its supermassive black hole rips apart a passing star. This “tidal disruption event” happens in a literal flash, as the central black hole pulls in stellar material and blasts out huge amounts of radiation in the process.  Astronomers know of around 100 tidal disruption events (TDE) in distant galaxies, based on the burst of light that arrives at telescopes on Earth and in space. Most of this light comes from X-rays and optical radiation.  MIT astronomers, tuning past the conventional X-ray and UV/optical bands, have discovered a new ...

In people with Alzheimer’s, the earliest symptoms are commonly disruptions in sleep rhythms. These include daytime sleepiness, showing agitation or confusion around dusk, staying awake longer, and waking up often at night. These changes are thought to result from damage to sleep-regulating areas in the brain. Alzheimer patients tend to spend less time in both REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, in which most dreaming occurs, and non-REM (NREM) sleep. But they show the greatest reduction in so-called slow-wave sleep (SWS) – a stage of non-dreaming deep sleep, characterized by slow ‘delta’ brain waves (0.1 to ...

Arynes, synthetic intermediates in which a portion of the benzene ring is a triple bond, have been applied in various organic molecular transformations and have long been of interest to chemists as extremely useful compounds. Furthermore, with the advancement in aryne chemistry, the development of “asymmetric synthesis” reactions of arynes, which are expected to increase the efficiency of the synthesis of compounds with complex steric structures and facilitate the creation of new compounds, has attracted increasing attention. However, asymmetric synthesis based on arynes, which are extremely reactive and unstable, presents several challenges. Therefore, asymmetric ...

Newborns of Black and Asian mothers are significantly more likely to experience hypothermia than those born to white mothers, according to a new study. The research will be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2023 Meeting, held April 27-May 1 in Washington, D.C. Researchers reviewed electronic medical records of 23,549 infants born at 35 weeks or later and admitted to a children’s hospital-affiliated newborn nursery between 2015 and 2021. The study evaluated all recorded temperatures ...

Black mothers with a master’s or doctorate degree experienced some of the worst birth outcomes, compared to Black mothers with less education and white mothers with the same or less education, according to a new study. The research will be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2023 Meeting, held April 27-May 1 in Washington, D.C. Researchers examined how educational achievement and race affected preterm births and low birth weights for babies born to non-Hispanic Black and white women ...

Therapeutic hypothermia, the only evidence-based treatment for newborns born with neonatal encephalopathy (NE) at or after 36 weeks, is not effective for reducing death or moderate/severe disability in newborns born between 33 and 35 weeks, according to a new study. The research will be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2023 Meeting, held April 27-May 1 in Washington, D.C. Researchers examined the effectiveness of whole-body therapeutic hypothermia—a commonly used treatment to lower newborns’ body temperature and protect against the effects of moderate or severe NE—in younger newborns. NE is a brain condition experienced at or near birth, ...

Children in states with minimal firearm policies have a significantly higher death rate compared to those in states with strict gun laws, according to a new national study. The research will be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2023 Meeting, held April 27-May 1 in Washington, D.C.  The study analyzed 6,491 pediatric firearm-related deaths between 2016 and 2020 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with state rankings for firearm legislation from Giffords Law Center, a national nonprofit that tracks and analyzes firearm legislation in all 50 states. States are ranked on the strength of gun laws on a scale from least lenient to most ...

Non-Hispanic Black youth between the ages of 5 and 18 years old are more likely to undergo pharmacologic restraint during mental health crises than children of other races and ethnicities. The findings will be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2023 Meeting, held April 27-May 1 in Washington, D.C.  The study examined records of 61,503 children admitted to 41 non-psychiatric U.S. children’s hospitals between 2018 and 2022 due to mental health conditions such as autism, anxiety, psychotic disorders, self-injury or suicide, and trauma. Approximately 11.9% received pharmacologic restraint, a deliberate form of medication ...

The percentage of children under 19 months who received all recommended vaccines on-time steadily improved from 22.5% in 2011 to 34.9% in 2020, according to a new national study. The research will be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2023 Meeting, held April 27-May 1 in Washington, D.C.  Researchers examined 161,187 child vaccination records over a 10-year period for the combined seven-vaccine series of diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, poliovirus, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae type b, varicella, and pneumococcal infections. The records came from ...

Asthma care reminders for clinicians improve patients’ use of preventive medication and reduce caregiver’s concerns about these medications, according to a new study. The findings will be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2023 Meeting, held April 27-May 1 in Washington, D.C. Researchers conducted a trial of 530 children with persistent or uncontrolled asthma at 18 pediatric and family medicine clinics in the Bronx, New York, to determine how the inclusion of clinician reminders about asthma severity and care guidelines in electronic ...

According to a new national study, most children visiting hospital emergency departments with anaphylaxis, a severe and potentially life-threatening allergic reaction, could be discharged after two hours or less—which is half the time of current minimum guidelines. This research will be presented at the 2023 Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) Meeting, held April 27-May 1 in Washington, D.C. Researchers conducted a study of 4,735 children aged 6 months to 18 years who had anaphylaxis and received at least one dose of epinephrine in the pre-emergency department or emergency department setting between 2015 and 2019. The study suggests ...

The majority of pediatric firearm injuries in Los Angeles County occur in neighborhoods with limited social, health and educational opportunity, according to a new study exploring incidents from 2010 to 2021. The research will be presented during the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2023 Meeting taking place April 27-May 1 in Washington, D.C. Researchers from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles analyzed firearm injuries in 1,383 children under 18 years old using records from the Trauma and Emergency Medicine ...

Gone are the days of dictatorial leaders in sport, screaming from the side-lines and insulting their players, and instead we are seeing an era of emotionally intelligent leaders who demonstrate an understanding of other people while getting effective results. The question is, how do you become an empathic leader in elite sports and will it really drive success? Psychologist Peter Sear PhD has carried out in-depth interviews with coaches of nine different elite sports across the world to gather a series ...

Low-income immigrant children in sanctuary states were nearly 10% more likely to be enrolled in Medicaid in the years following the 2018 announcement of the revised “public charge” rule, according to a new national study. Researchers examined trends in children’s Medicaid enrollment in sanctuary states—states that limit collaboration with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel. The research will be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2023 Meeting, held April 27-May 1 in Washington, D.C.  Researchers explored Medicaid enrollment rates among low-income immigrant children following a 2018 federal rule denying ...

Substance use among older drivers increases the probability of them being at-fault two to four times during a crash, a new study, analyzing nine years’ worth of US nationwide highway traffic data, shows.   Although older drivers are less likely to report using substances, this research found that out of a sample of 87,060 drivers involved in two moving vehicle crashes, more than one-third were motorists over the age of 70 who tested positive for substances.   Findings are published today in the peer-reviewed journal Traffic Injury Prevention.   “In general older drivers are at an elevated risk for ...

An international research team led by investigators at Virginia Commonwealth University has identified for the first time markers that may indicate early in life if a person has susceptibility to schizophrenia.  The ability to predict the risk of developing schizophrenia later in life may allow early detection and intervention, which the researchers hope can reduce the impact of the disease on individuals, families and communities. Their results have been published in Molecular Psychiatry. Schizophrenia is a serious psychiatric disorder that is most often detected in young adulthood. It ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – A Cornell University-led project has added a new chapter to the story of Balto – the most famous sled dog in history – by using ancient DNA extraction and analysis to reconstruct his phenotype and identify his genetic connections to modern dog breeds. The research reveals Balto’s lineage was genetically healthier and less inbred than modern breeds, with characteristics adapted to the extreme environment of 1920s Alaska. The team’s paper, “Comparative Genomics of Balto, a Famous Historic Dog, Captures Lost Diversity of 1920s Sled Dogs,” published April 27 in Science. Heather Huson, associate professor of animal science ...

New York, NY—April 27, 2023—Think about what you do with your hands when you’re home at night pushing buttons on your TV’s remote control, or at a restaurant using all kinds of cutlery and glassware. These skills are all based on touch, while you’re watching a TV program or choosing something from the menu. Our hands and fingers are incredibly skilled mechanisms, and highly sensitive to boot. Robotics researchers have long been trying to create “true” dexterity in robot ...