Vampire bats may soon take up residence in the United States and bring with them an ancient pathogen. “What we found was that the distribution of vampire bats has moved northward across time due to past climate change, which has corresponded with an increase in rabies cases in many Latin American countries,” said Paige Van de Vuurst, a Ph.D. student in Virginia Tech’s Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health Graduate Program.  Van de Vuurst is the lead author of research recently published in the Ecography journal that predicts ...

To teach an AI agent a new task, like how to open a kitchen cabinet, researchers often use reinforcement learning — a trial-and-error process where the agent is rewarded for taking actions that get it closer to the goal. In many instances, a human expert must carefully design a reward function, which is an incentive mechanism that gives the agent motivation to explore. The human expert must iteratively update that reward function as the agent explores and tries different actions. This can be time-consuming, inefficient, ...

Dietary food intake has a major influence on health indicators, including Body Mass Index (BMI), blood pressure, serum cholesterol and glucose. Previous research has shown that decisions to purchase specific food items are primarily based on taste and cost. In the United States, only 12 percent and 10 percent of adults meet fruit and vegetable intake recommendations, respectively. Since affordability of food items is a limiting factor for meeting fruit and vegetable intake guidelines, researchers hypothesize that more affordable low energy-dense foods like fruits and vegetables, which are relatively more expensive ...

In recent years, cell and gene therapies have shown significant promise for treating cancer, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, heart disease, HIV/AIDS and other difficult-to-treat diseases. But the lack of effective ways to deliver biological treatments into the body has posed a major barrier for bringing these new therapies to the market — and, ultimately, to the patients who need them most.   Now, Northwestern University synthetic biologists have developed a flexible new platform that solves part of this daunting delivery problem. Mimicking natural ...

Kelly Schrum, Professor, Higher Education Program; Affiliated Faculty, History and Art History, and Nathan Sleeter, Research Assistant Professor, History and Art History, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM), received $220,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities for the project: "Unpacking the History of Higher Education in the United States."  This funding began in Oct. 2023 and will end in late Dec. 2024.  The history of higher education is central to understanding its present and future, especially for students in Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) programs who will lead colleges and universities for decades ...

SAN ANTONIO — November 27, 2023 —On November 17, 2023, the Polarimeter to UNify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission achieved an important milestone, passing its internal system integration review and clearing the mission to start integrating its four observatories. Southwest Research Institute leads PUNCH, a NASA Small Explorer (SMEX) mission that will integrate understanding of the Sun’s corona, the outer atmosphere visible during total solar eclipses, with the “solar wind” that fills and defines the solar system. SwRI is also building the spacecraft and three of its five instruments. “This ...

Traditional sterility testing methods for the presence of bacteria and fungi in T-cell cultures are time-consuming, taking from seven up to 14 days, while this novel method takes only up to 24 hours Researchers combined advanced long-read nanopore sequencing techniques and machine learning to ensure accuracy and speed in detecting and identifying sample sterility status and microbial species present in T-cell cultures This breakthrough has the potential to transform sterility assurance in biopharmaceutical manufacturing, leading to better patient outcomes by accelerating the process of getting ...

·  AI tool could reduce disparities for patients who are diagnosed in community settings ·  Non-cancerous cells can play an important role in sustaining or inhibiting cancer growth  ·  One in eight U.S. women will receive a breast cancer diagnosis in her lifetime CHICAGO --- A new AI (Artificial Intelligence) tool may make it possible to spare breast cancer patients unnecessary chemotherapy treatments by using a more precise method of predicting their outcomes, reports ...

About The Study: School shooting incidents in the U.S. were typically executed using low- and moderate-powered firearms, according to this analysis of data from 262 adolescents who discharged firearms in 253 school shootings spanning 26 years. These weapons were most frequently stolen from family members or relatives of the perpetrators. These findings may significantly influence discussions around gun control policy, particularly in advocating for secure firearm storage to reduce adolescents’ access to weapons.  Authors: Brent R. Klein, Ph.D., of the University of South Carolina in Columbia, is the corresponding author. To access ...

About The Study: Excess cardiovascular mortality among former smokers was about one-third that of continuing smokers within the first decade after quitting, and the cardiovascular mortality rate of former smokers was similar to that of never smokers 20 to 29 years after quitting in this study of 438,000 U.S. adults. These findings emphasize that with sustained cessation, cause-specific mortality rates among former smokers may eventually approximate those of never smokers.  Authors: Blake Thomson, D.Phil., of the Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, California, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at ...

Brain Boost: Can a Coach Help Elders at Risk for Alzheimer’s? Study shows cognitive improvements when participants keep active and socially engaged, control blood pressure and diabetes. As more medications move towards federal approval for Alzheimer’s disease, a new study led by researchers at UC San Francisco and Kaiser Permanente Washington has found that personalized health and lifestyle changes can delay or even prevent memory loss for higher-risk older adults. The two-year study compared cognitive ...

An international team has shown that the injection of a type of stem cell into the brains of patients living with progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) is safe, well tolerated and has a long-lasting effect that appears to protect the brain from further damage. The study, led by scientists at the University of Cambridge, University of Milan Bicocca and Hospital Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza (Italy), is a step towards developing an advanced cell therapy treatment for progressive MS. Over 2 million people live with MS worldwide, ...

PITTSBURGH, Nov. 27, 2023 – Common neuropsychiatric symptoms that doctors see in Alzheimer’s disease patients originate from brain inflammation rather than amyloid and tau proteins, report University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers today in JAMA Network Open. The finding strengthens mounting evidence for the role of neuroinflammation in Alzheimer’s progression and suggests new pathways for the development of therapies targeting neurological symptoms of the disease. “Neuropsychiatric symptoms such as irritability, agitation, anxiety and depression are among the most difficult ...

Nearly a third of the world’s mine tailings are stored within or near protected conservation areas, University of Queensland research has found. A study led by UQ’s Bora Aska, from the Sustainable Minerals Institute and School of the Environment, said these waste facilities pose an enormous risk to some of earth’s most precious species and landscapes. “Mine tailings contain the waste and residue that remains after mineral processing, and the storage facilities built to contain it are some of the world’s largest engineered structures,” Ms Aska said. “We found of the 1,721 disclosed tailings ...

Whether infants at five months of age look mostly at faces or non-social objects such as cars or mobile phones is largely determined by genes. This has now been demonstrated by researchers at Uppsala University and Karolinska Institutet. The findings suggest that there is a biological basis for how infants create their unique visual experiences and which things they learn most about. The study has been published in the scientific journal Nature Human Behaviour. The way in which we explore our environment with our eyes affects what we notice, think about and learn. The new study analysed preference for faces versus non-social objects in ...

A Perspective article published today in Nature Geoscience tackles the longstanding issue of gender representation in science, focusing on the field of ice core science. Prior work has shown that despite progress toward gender parity over the past fifty years1, women continue to be significantly underrepresented within the discipline of Earth sciences2 and receive disproportionately fewer opportunities for recognition, such as invited talks, awards, and nominations3. This lack of opportunity can have long-term negative impacts on women’s careers. To help address these persistent gender gaps, the study evaluates patterns related to women’s publication in ice core science over the ...

Ahab hunting down Moby Dick. Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner. Learning Latin. Walking over hot coals. Standing in a long line for boba tea or entrance to a small, overpriced clothing retail store. Forking up for luxury nonsense. What do these activities have in common? They’re all examples of the overvaluation of what economists call “sunk costs”: the price you’ve already irretrievably paid in time, money, effort, suffering or any combination of them for an item, an experience or a sense of self-esteem.   It’s a ...

An intense international effort to improve the resolution of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for studying the human brain has culminated in an ultra-high resolution 7 Tesla scanner that records up to 10 times more detail than current 7T scanners and over 50 times more detail than current 3T scanners, the mainstay of most hospitals. The dramatically improved resolution means that scientists can see functional MRI (fMRI) features 0.4 millimeters across, compared to the 2 or 3 millimeters typical of today's standard 3T fMRIs. "The NexGen 7T scanner is a new tool that allows us to look at the brain circuitry underlying different diseases of the brain with ...

During the nearly five decades of its operation, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Hamburg has developed many fruitful collaborations with other scientific institutions located in the Hamburg metropolitan area. One example is the long-lasting collaboration between researchers at EMBL Hamburg and the Center for Biobased Solutions (CBBS) at the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), which has recently yielded new insights into the structure and function of a lipid-degrading enzyme found in a microbe adapted to living in extreme conditions. The findings could help improve ...

The return of bluefin tuna to Northern European waters is a conservation success story, but rising sea temperatures in their Mediterranean nursery grounds mean this recovery may be short-lived, according to new research led by the University of Southampton. Temperatures expected in the Mediterranean within the next 50 years are expected to drive juvenile tuna out of the Mediterranean, where they may be accidentally caught in existing sardine and anchovy fisheries – requiring fishery managers to adapt their methods to allow tuna nurseries to establish. Outlining the research, published in Nature, lead author Clive Trueman, Professor of Geochemical Ecology ...

A new study published in the journal Gut has shed light on the complex relationship between serum lipids, lipid-modifying targets, and cholelithiasis, a common condition characterized by the formation of gallstones. The study, led by researchers at the First Hospital of Jilin University, employed a combination of observational and Mendelian randomization (MR) approaches to comprehensively assess these associations. Cholelithiasis is a prevalent hepatobiliary disorder that primarily affects Western populations. It is a significant risk factor for cholangiocarcinoma, ...

With images - the visual assets can be downloaded by clicking on this WeTransfer link:https://we.tl/t-mbRtSW5BzO *See further information at end of release for captions and required pic credits  A Leeds researcher is keen to help beekeepers shape their practices following his study which appears to disprove the widespread belief that honeybees naturally insulate their colonies against the cold. His findings suggest that the creatures are potentially being subjected to thermally-induced ...

A large amount of the heavy automobile pollution from Copenhagen’s Bispeengbuen thoroughfare goes straight into people's homes. This, according to a study by researchers at the University of Copenhagen. A sensor developed by one of the researchers can help fill in the blanks of our understanding about local air pollution. Air pollution cuts the lives of more than four thousand Danes short every year. Locally, we have a very limited understanding how many harmful substances waft in the air we breath. Indeed, air pollution is only monitored at fourteen locations across Denmark. This ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Despite the many challenges they face, slightly more than half of unmarried low-income couples with children have positive co-parenting relationships, a new study found.   And those supportive relationships were linked to their children showing more empathy, less emotional insecurity and fewer behavior problems.   Parents who are good co-parents work together as a team, provide support to each other and back up each other’s parenting decisions, said Susan Yoon, lead author of the study and associate professor of social work at The Ohio State University.   Those types of relationships may be particularly hard for the parents in this study, ...

A common concern about gender-affirming hormone therapy for transmasculine people is the risk of red blood cell volume changes and erythrocytosis, a high concentration of red blood cells, with the use of prescribed testosterone. However, Mount Sinai researchers have found that testosterone treatment may be safer than previously reported, with results published today in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. Mount Sinai researchers from the Division of Endocrinology and Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery examined the relationship between the use of testosterone as part ...