Sunday, April 14, 2024 - Toronto - “Dreams are messages from the deep.” (Dune Part 1) Musings about dreams abound throughout society, from movies to TV to books. But despite being a constant source of fascination, the role of dreams in our lives still remains elusive. As recently noted in the TV show Grey’s Anatomy: “Honestly, no one knows why we dream or why we have nightmares.” While true, neuroscientists are finding innovative new ways to study dreams and how they influence our cognition. “Understanding how dreams are generated and what their function might be — if any — is one of science's ...

A University of Sydney study investigating menu items on major online food delivery outlets and applications (apps) in Australia has found most advertised items are missing nutritional information that would otherwise help consumers make healthy choices.   Researchers say the findings show this information is largely absent or poorly provided on online food retail platforms and menu labelling laws need to keep up with increasing demand of online food delivery services. The 2011 New South Wales Menu Labelling Scheme require large fast-food outlets to display both the average energy content (as Kilojoules) on menu items and the reference statement ‘the ...

Finding highlights the importance of including pet-owning households in surveillance programmes for antibiotic resistance **Note: the release below is a special early release from the ESCMID Global Congress (formerly ECCMID, Barcelona, Spain, 27-30 April). Please credit the congress if you use this story** **ECCMID has now changed name to ESCMID Global, please credit ESCMID Global Congress in all future stories** Pet dogs and cats play an important role in the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, new research be presented at the ESCMID Global ...

In a new paper published in JACS AU, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign analyzed the effects of solvation and ion valency on metallopolymers, with implications for critical materials recovery and recycling, and environmental remediation. Chemical and biomolecular engineering (ChBE) professor Xiao Su led the research, which explored the science behind the selectivity “preferences” of monovalent and divalent anions towards redox polymers. In other words, why – when electrodes are coated with redox polymer films and potential is applied – one ion prefers the redox polymer while ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Last September, the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, discovered JWST-ER1g, a massive ancient galaxy that formed when the universe was just a quarter of its current age. Surprisingly, an Einstein ring is associated with this galaxy. That’s because JWST-ER1g acts as a lens and bends light from a distant source, which then appears as a ring — a phenomenon called strong gravitational lensing, predicted in Einstein’s theory of general relativity.  The total mass enclosed within the ring has two components: stellar and dark matter components.  “If ...

Clear guidelines should be established for the generation and processing of synthetic data to ensure transparency, accountability and fairness, a new study says. Synthetic data - generated through machine learning algorithms from original real-world data - is gaining prominence because it may provide privacy-preserving alternatives to traditional data sources. It can be particularly useful in situations where the actual data is too sensitive to share, too scarce, or of too low quality. Synthetic data differs from real-world data as it is generated by algorithmic models known as synthetic data generators, such as Generative Adversarial ...

Washington, April 12, 2024—Gender and racially based employment disparities, differences in perceptions of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and workplace discrimination remain significant issues in the field of educational measurement, according to a new report supported by the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME), and Women in Measurement (WIM). Educational measurement professionals who work at universities, thinktanks, and other research organizations are ...

HOUSTON, April 10, 2024 - The University of Houston (UH) and Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University (HWU) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) today, marking the beginning of their partnership to foster global collaboration in education, research and innovation in the energy sector and beyond. At the heart of the MoU lies a commitment to advance research that helps society deliver a just energy transition, with a particular emphasis on hydrogen – a critical element in the transition to sustainable energy ...

HOUSTON – (April 12, 2024) – Rice University engineers have developed the smallest implantable brain stimulator demonstrated in a human patient. Thanks to pioneering magnetoelectric power transfer technology, the pea-sized device developed in the Rice lab of Jacob Robinson in collaboration with Motif Neurotech and clinicians Dr. Sameer Sheth and Dr. Sunil Sheth can be powered wirelessly via an external transmitter and used to stimulate the brain through the dura ⎯ the protective ...

Jennifer Stinson a renowned researcher in the field of chronic pain management in children, has received the 2023 Barer-Flood Prize from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).  The prize, named in honour of the first two Scientific Directors of CIHR-IHSPR, Drs. Morris Barer and Colleen Flood, recognizes the highest-ranking senior-career investigator who identifies as a woman, and their research excellence.  Dr. Stinson, a Professor at the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, and Temerty Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine, is being acknowledged ...

Modern Eurasian sheep predominantly belong to only two so-called genetic matrilineages inherited through the ewes. Previous research thereby assumed that genetic diversity must already have decreased rapidly in the early stages of domestication of wild sheep. Our study of a series of complete mitogenomes from the early domestication site Asıklı Höyük in central Anatolia, which was inhabited between 10,300 and 9,300 years ago, disproves this assumption: despite a millennium of human interference with the keeping and breeding of sheep, mitogenomic diversity remained invariably high, with five matrilineages ...

The theories offered by the dominant literature in political science today to try to explain the sources of the political polarization that has endangered democracy around the world are adequate for the United States and Europe, but do not make sense for the countries of Latin America. For this reason, greater collaboration among political scientists is needed to identify other, more plausible hypotheses for the phenomenon that the region is also experiencing. The assessment was made by researchers participating in a panel discussion on democracy and social inclusion held on April 9 in Chicago (United States) during FAPESP Week Illinois https://fapesp.br/week/2024/illinois. “There’s ...

A new study details how nutrient-starved cells divert protein transport stations to cellular recycling centers to be broken down, highlighting a novel approach cells use to deal with stressful conditions. New proteins bound for outside the cell are manufactured on the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) – a snaking membrane inside the cell. Grape-like tubular outgrowths on the ER called ER exit sites serve as transport stations, collecting these newly synthesized proteins and delivering them to the next step in their journey. In recent ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Marine researchers have mapped the density of one of the most endangered large whale species worldwide, the North Atlantic right whale, using newly analyzed data to predict and help avoid whales’ harmful, even fatal, exposure to commercial fishing and vessel strikes. Duke University’s Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab led a collaboration of 11 institutions in the United States that pooled 17 years of available visual survey data covering 9.7 million square kilometers of the U.S. ...

Philadelphia, April 12, 2024 – In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many families worried about the long-term effects posed by the SARS-COV-2 virus. Now, researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) found that a SARS-COV-2 infection likely does not increase the risk of asthma development in pediatric patients. The findings were published today in the journal Pediatrics. Respiratory viral infections early in life are risk factors for asthma. Since the SARS-COV-2 virus can cause severe lung inflammation and prolonged respiratory symptoms in certain patients, many families were concerned whether COVID-19 might trigger an asthma diagnosis in their children. CHOP ...

The typical job of the proteasome, the garbage disposal of the cell, is to grind down proteins into smaller bits and recycle some of those bits and parts. That’s still the case, for the most part, but, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers, studying nerve cells grown in the lab and mice, say that the proteasome’s role may go well beyond that. Its additional role, say the researchers, may shift from trash sorter to signal messenger in dorsal root ganglion neurons — cells that convey sensory signals from nerve cells close to the skin to the central nervous system. Results of their experiments, published April 12 in Cell Reports, show that proteasomes may help those specialized ...

he most common type of lung fibrosis — scarring of the lungs -- is idiopathic, meaning of unknown cause.  Researchers are urgently trying to find ways to prevent or slow idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and related lung conditions, which can cause worsening shortness of breath, dry cough, and extreme fatigue. Average survival following diagnosis of IPF is just three to five years, and the disease has no cure. A recent U-M study from a team led by Sean Fortier, M.D. and Marc Peters-Golden, M.D. of the Division ...

An international group of scientists, co-led by researcher Ariadna Mechó of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS), observed 160 species on seamounts off the coast of Chile that had not yet been known to live in the region and suspect that at least 50 of these species are new to science. The recent Schmidt Ocean Institute expedition to the underwater mountains of the Salas y Gómez Ridge, a remote and underexplored area that stretches from ...

CLEVELAND – Since the Cleveland Innovation District launched in 2021, the founding institutions have made significant progress, including exceeding many of the targets set by the Ohio Department of Development and JobsOhio. Collectively, the institutions participating in this $500 million public-private initiative have created more than 2,600 jobs, spent nearly  $1.2 billion on research and innovation, commenced construction of two new research facilities, created dedicated research space comprising more than 550,000 square feet, and awarded more than 7,300 degrees and certificates to support workforce development. “The Cleveland Innovation District’s progress ...

WASHINGTON (April 12, 2024) – A third of the nearly 20 million women who participated in a national health survey report migraines during menstruation, and of them, 11.8 million, or 52.5%, were premenopausal. The analysis was conducted by researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center and Pfizer, Inc., which makes a migraine medication.  Because of  the underuse of medications to help treat or prevent menstrual migraines, investigators wanted to understand how common menstrual migraines were and which groups of women could most benefit from potential therapies. The study will be presented April 16, at the American Academy of Neurology ...

HOUSTON ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights showcases the latest breakthroughs in cancer care, research and prevention. These advances are made possible through seamless collaboration between MD Anderson’s world-leading clinicians and scientists, bringing discoveries from the lab to the clinic and back. Recent developments at MD Anderson offer insights into a combination strategy to improve immunotherapy responses, promising trial results for patients with tumors harboring BRAF mutations, a maintenance strategy for patients with acute myeloid leukemia following chemotherapy, a strategy ...

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., is pleased that Barbara Mazzolai, PhD, has been appointed the new Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the bimonthly journal Soft Robotics. Dr. Mazzolai joins Barry Trimmer, PhD, as part of the executive editorial team for the journal. Soft Robotics is the leading robotics journal devoted to the emerging technologies and developments of soft and deformable robots.  The journal’s coverage includes flexible electronics, materials science, computer science, and biomechanics. The journal breaks new ground as the first to answer the urgent need for research on robotic technology that can safely ...

Wiley, one of the world’s largest publishers and a global leader in research and learning, today announced the 2024 release of the Mass Spectra of Designer Drugs. This indispensable spectral database serves as a cornerstone for forensic laboratories worldwide, enabling swift identification of illicit substances. Sourced from both legal and underground literature, it provides access to the latest novel psychoactive substances (NPS) like variants of fentanyl, xylazine, various opioids, synthetic cannabinoids, and more. This annually refreshed database provides access to 35,094 mass spectra representing 26,712 unique ...

By Ann Kellett, Texas A&M University School of Public Health Freestanding emergency departments (EDs) — either satellite branches of hospitals or independently operated facilities — have popped up across the country. Texas has the most, with 338 freestanding EDs as of May 2023, and these facilities handle nearly one quarter of all emergency department visits in the state. Now, a new study from the Texas A&M University School of Public Health is the first to compare the characteristics of visits to freestanding EDs with visits to traditional hospital-based ...

University of Cincinnati researchers will present abstracts at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting 2024, April 13-18 in Denver, Colorado. Two-component treatment leads to improvement for patients Late-onset Pompe disease (LOPD) is a rare, inherited genetic disease caused by the accumulation of glycogen, the body’s stored form of glucose, in muscles and other organs. Left untreated, the muscle weakness it causes can lead to the loss of the ability to walk and breathing impairment. A research team led by UC’s ...