Ah-Hyung “Alissa” Park has been appointed the Ronald and Valerie Sugar Dean of the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, effective September 1. One of the nation’s leading experts on carbon capture and conversion technology, Park is currently the Lenfest Earth Institute Professor of Climate Change and chair of the department of earth and environmental engineering at Columbia University, where she has been a faculty member since 2007. She also is director of the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy, an executive committee ...

In an article titled “A Meta-analysis of Correction Effects in Science-Relevant Misinformation” published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, University of Pennsylvania social psychologists and communication scholars Man-pui Sally Chan and Dolores Albarracín explain the circumstances under which corrections of misinformation about science are most likely to work or fail, as well as the characteristics of the corrections most likely to succeed. The authors conducted a meta-analysis, a quantitative synthesis of prior research, which involved 60,000 ...

Research Highlights: States that participated in the Medicaid expansion provision of the Affordable Care Act, raising the income level to be eligible for Medicaid up to 138% of the federal poverty level, improved several measures of heart disease care for Medicaid recipients in their states. In an analysis of 30 studies comparing states that chose to participate in Medicaid expansion with those that didn’t, Medicaid expansion was associated with improvement in insurance coverage for cardiac care, decreased out-of-hospital deaths, fewer socioeconomic and demographic disparities in care and increased preventive care and screening. Embargoed until 1 p.m. CT/2 p.m. ET, ...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – June 20, 2023 – An estimated 3 million patients visit emergency departments each year with acute chest pain and mildly elevated troponin levels. High levels of troponin, a protein, occur when the heart muscle is damaged from a heart attack. How best to evaluate and treat patients with chest pain with detectable or mildly elevated troponin remains unclear. Now, a new study from researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine reveals that cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), is a safe and valuable tool to help evaluate these complex patients. The ...

An advance in a topological insulator material — whose interior behaves like an electrical insulator but whose surface behaves like a conductor — could revolutionize the fields of next-generation electronics and quantum computing, according to scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Discovered in the 1980s, a topological material is a new phase of material whose discoverers received a Nobel Prize in 2016. Using only an electric field, ORNL researchers have transformed a normal insulator into a magnetic topological insulator. This exotic material allows electricity ...

DALLAS, June 20, 2023 — New research published today in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes examines the pilot phase of the American Heart Association quality improvement program Target: Aortic Stenosis™. The program aims to lay the groundwork to more reliably measure performance on the quality of aortic stenosis (AS) care from diagnosis to treatment. The Target: Aortic Stenosis program focuses on closing care gaps for patients who are not appropriately diagnosed and referred for initial ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Millions of Americans over the age of 65 lack access to the social and emotional support they need for healthy aging, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Non-white individuals in rural communities are especially susceptible. New research from Penn State found that the presence of social infrastructure — shared community spaces that are free or low cost to visit — in rural communities may help provide social and emotional support and promote healthy aging among older, ...

The 6th World Congress on Targeting Phage Therapy 2023 that was held on June 1-2 in Paris, and gathered more than 150 attendees from 30+ different countries. Targeting Phage Therapy 2023 included more than 71 presentations between major talks, short orals, and posters. The Chairman of the scientific committee Dr. Marvin Edeas Université de Paris, Cochin Institute, France, and Dr. Domenico Frezza, University of Roma Tor Vergata, Italy, stated: “It’s wonderful to hear that the speakers at the Targeting Phage Therapy 2023 conference delivered excellent presentations on a variety of fantastic topics. The fact ...

Sammie Powers, Assistant Professor, Recreation Management, School of Sport, Recreation, and Tourism Management (SRTM); Hung-Ling Liu, Associate Professor, Recreation Management, SRTM; and Ellen Rodgers, Associate Dean, College of Education and Human Development (CEHD), received funding from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) for the project: "Appalachian Conservation Strategy Feasibility Pilot: Conservation and Human Dimensions Stakeholder Engagement Action Plan Project."  They are collaborating with Nate Trauntvein, Associate Professor, ...

Menon & Maribojoc Receive Funding For Evaluation Services For Step Ahead 2.0 – Housing First Support Services Pilot Nirup Menon, Professor, Information Systems and Operations Management (ISOM), and Roderick Maribojoc, Executive Director, Real Estate Entrepreneurship, received funding for: "Evaluation Services for Step Ahead 2.0 – Housing First Support Services Pilot." Menon and Maribojoc are being funded to evaluate the impact of services in reducing homelessness in Fairfax ...

Ten years ago, Samer Naif made an unexpected discovery in Earth’s mantle: a narrow pocket, proposed to be filled with magma, hidden some 60 kilometers beneath the seafloor of the Cocos Plate. Mantle melts are buoyant and typically float toward the surface — think underwater volcanoes that erupt to form strings of islands. But Naif’s imaging instead showed a clear slice of semi-molten rock: low-degree partial melts, still sandwiched at the base of the plate some 37 miles beneath the ocean floor. Then, the observation provided an explanation for how tectonic plates can gradually slide, ...

Researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) find that apple-shaped obesity is associated with cytokine storm and a higher risk of death in COVID-19 patients Tokyo, Japan – Eating an apple a day may keep the doctor away, but having an apple shape is not nearly as healthy. Now, researchers from Japan have shown that people who carry their weight in their bellies may be at greater risk of poor outcomes if they catch COVID-19. In a study published last month in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers from Tokyo Medical ...

Amidst rising concerns about the global climate crisis, Princeton researchers have uncovered the surprisingly large role that companies play in shaping sustainable behaviors among employees, as well as a link between eco-friendly behaviors and happier workers. In research published in Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology, the Princeton team reported the results from a nationwide study of employees to understand the factors that influence whether workers take sustainable actions and incorporate the environment into their day-to-day decision making. The results ...

Give credit to your dad’s gene for keeping you safe during those long months in your mother’s womb. Because without this genetic warrior, you might have succumbed to any number of viral infections that otherwise could be fatal to a fetus. A new paper published this week in the journal Cell Host & Microbe explains the mechanisms behind this anti-viral protection. “What’s unique about this gene is how it produces a form of defense for the baby in the womb,’’ said Hana Totary-Jain, PhD., associate professor of Molecular ...

Outcome indicators make quality of life after childhood cancer measurable A new measurement tool helps analyzing the survival rate of children with cancer, but also the quality of survival. Researchers at the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology have worked with patients and survivors to develop a set of outcome indicators that measure health issues. By making the balance between survival and quality of life measurable, the outcome indicators help improve care for children with cancer. There are many types of childhood cancer, and the consequences ...

Back in the 1920s, researchers discovered that cancer patients had sweet-smelling urine. First, the doctors were puzzled, but they soon realised that it was a result of elevated blood sugar levels. “This was one of the first things we learned about cancer patients,” says Associate Professor Lykke Sylow. The sweet-smelling urine suggested that cancer affects the body’s blood sugar level. But how? A new study is ready to answer that question. Where previous studies have examined the connection between cancer and insulin, Lykke Sylow and colleagues’ ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Charles Schulz, creator of the comic strip “Peanuts,” was anything but a hippie.   Still, he named the beloved yellow bird character in “Peanuts” Woodstock after the famous counterculture music festival that was attended and celebrated by the younger generation who grew up in the 1960s and ’70s, including many who saw themselves as hippies.   The question is why, says Michelle Ann Abate, author of the new book Blockheads, Beagles, and Sweet Babboos: New Perspectives on Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts.   Based on her critical analysis of the strips featuring Woodstock, ...

There's a bouncer in everyone: The blood-brain barrier, a layer of cells between blood vessels and the rest of the brain, kicks out toxins, pathogens and other undesirables that can sabotage the brain's precious gray matter. When the bouncer is off its guard and a rowdy element gains entry, a variety of conditions can crop up. Barrier-invading cancer cells can develop into tumors, and multiple sclerosis can occur when too many white blood cells slip pass the barrier, leading to an autoimmune attack on the protective layer of brain nerves, hindering their communication with the rest of the body. "A leaky blood-brain barrier is a common ...

EDMONTON — Combining a cancer-targeting virus with radiation to treat brain cancer in mice was more effective than either therapy on its own according to University of Alberta research, providing hope for new treatments that combine immunotherapy with traditional surgery, chemotherapy or radiation. The researchers treated mice with glioblastoma brain tumours simultaneously with high-dose radiation and a genetically engineered oncolytic vaccinia virus, a virus that has been used safely as a vaccine against smallpox.  The ...

As director of SRI’s Human Sleep Research Program, Fiona Baker studies the complex interplay between sleep and overall health and well-being. Much of her work has been focused on sleep patterns in adult women, but recently her attention has turned to adolescents. Adolescence is a crucial time for developing healthy sleep patterns as it is for brain development. In her research, Baker draws clear lines of connection between the two. “Sleep is so important to us all, but especially for teenagers or adolescents,” Baker says. “Between the ages of 10 and 21, or so, and even a little later, the ...

All around us, insects are speaking to each other: jockeying for mates, searching for food, and trying to avoid becoming someone else’s next meal. Some of this communication is easy to spot—like the flashes of fireflies on a summer night or a screaming chorus of cicadas in the afternoon—but many of the most sophisticated conversations are challenging to observe, occurring through an exchange of chemical scents. Understanding chemical communication could be the key to finding new, more effective ways to protect crops or ward off biting insects that can transmit diseases. Researchers ...

NEW YORK, NY — Anything with three hearts, blue blood and skin that can change colors like a display in Times Square is likely to turn heads. Meet Sepia bandensis, known more descriptively as the camouflaging dwarf cuttlefish. Over the past three years, a team led by neuroscientists at Columbia’s Zuckerman that includes data experts and web designers has put together a brain atlas of this captivating cephalopod: a neuroanatomical roadmap depicting for the first time the brain’s overall 32-lobed structure as well its cellular organization.    The ...

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), released just prior to an international climate convention in 2015, explicitly stated that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions were the highest in history, with clear and widespread impacts on the climate system. Since then, hundreds of cities across the world have published their own climate action plans (CAPs), detailing how their urban areas will handle climate change. How do the plans stack up against one another and against the recommended ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – New ultra-high-resolution CT technology enables excellent image quality and accurate diagnosis of coronary artery disease in high-risk patients, a potentially significant benefit for people previously ineligible for noninvasive screening, according to a study published in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Coronary artery disease is the most common form of heart disease. Coronary CT angiography (CCTA) is highly effective for ruling out coronary artery disease ...

Self-driving revolution hampered by a lack of accurate simulations of human behaviour  Algorithms that accurately reflect the behaviour of road users - vital for the safe roll out of driverless vehicles - are still not available, warn scientists.  They say there is “formidable complexity” in developing software that can predict the way people behave and interact on the roads, be they pedestrians, motorists or bike riders.   To improve the modelling, a research team led by Professor Gustav Markkula from the Institute of Transport Studies ...