Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) at Texas Children’s Hospital and collaborating institutions have gained new insights into the molecular changes leading to Rett syndrome, a severe neurological disorder caused by mutations in the MeCP2 gene encoding methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2). The team reports in the journal Neuron that loss of MeCP2 in adulthood causes immediate progressive dysregulation of hundreds of genes – some are activated while others are suppressed – and these changes occur well before any measurable deficiencies in neurological function. The MeCP2 protein is most highly expressed ...

LAWRENCE — Are human spacecraft, landers, rovers and other space-exploration debris little more than trash littering the surface of Mars, or the modern equivalent of Clovis points — treasured artifacts marking Homo sapiens’ lust for new frontiers? New scholarship by University of Kansas anthropologist Justin Holcomb argues physical artifacts of human Martian exploration deserve cataloging, preservation and care in order to chronicle humanity’s first attempts at interplanetary exploration. The ...

About The Study: In this systematic review and meta-analysis of 33 observational studies involving 96,000 adults, higher daily step counts were associated with fewer depressive symptoms in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies in the general adult population. Further prospective cohort studies are needed to clarify the potential protective role of daily steps in mitigating the risk of depression during adulthood. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Estela Jimenez-Lopez, PhD, MPH, email estela.jimenezlopez@uclm.es. To ...

About The Study: The findings of this randomized clinical trial show that cannabidiol (CBD) can be used safely in women with advanced breast cancer and clinical anxiety. Although the study did not meet its primary end point comparing pre-ingestion vs post-ingestion anxiety change scores between study arms, anxiety levels in the CBD arm were significantly lower 2 to 4 hours after ingestion, suggesting a possible anxiolytic effect and warranting further investigation. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Ilana ...

About The Study: The results of this randomized clinical trial suggest that transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation would be safe and effective in treating chronic insomnia. Future multicenter clinical trials with large sample sizes are needed to validate its effectiveness across diverse populations. Corresponding Authors: To contact the corresponding authors, email Yu Wang, MD, PhD, (wy8166@126.com) and Peijing Rong, MD, PhD, (drrongpj@163.com). To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website ...

EMBARGOED by the Journal of the American Medical Association until 11 a.m. ET, Dec.16, 2024 (Boston)—In the U.S., atrial fibrillation (AF), a heart condition that causes an irregular heartbeat in the upper chambers of the heart, affects up to one in three people in their lifetime. Significant complications associated with this condition include ischemic stroke, heart failure, myocardial infarction, chronic kidney disease, dementia and mortality. In a new review article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center summarize ...

Collaborative asthma project between Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Wyss Institute advances with new grant support New industry support enables the team to expand their search and validation of diagnostic biomarkers to shed light on asthma with thus far unexplained causes and improve therapy  By Benjamin Boettner (BOSTON) – Asthma affects more than 260M people worldwide and nearly 28M people in the U.S. alone, where, on average, 10 people die from attacks of the chronic disease each day. Many of these deaths could be prevented if ...

Human civilization is currently evolving at an unprecedented rate, with new breakthroughs every single day. This has become possible due to never-tapped-before levels of energy resources. However, the unsustainable development has recently raised concerns about adverse effects on the environment, resulting in a growing urgency to address issues pertaining to energy efficiency and climate change, especially in urban environments. Notably, rapid urbanization has worsened the urban heat island effect, a phenomenon where a city experiences significantly warmer temperatures than ...

A joint research team from the University of Canberra and Kuwait College of Science and Technology has achieved groundbreaking detection of Parkinson's disease with near-perfect accuracy, simply by analyzing brain responses to emotional situations like watching video clips or images. The findings offer an objective way to diagnose the debilitating movement disorder, instead of relying on clinical expertise and patient self-assessments, potentially enhancing treatment options and overall well-being for those affected by Parkinson's disease. The study was published Oct. 17 in Intelligent ...

Prostate cancer remains a global health challenge, ranking as the second most commonly diagnosed cancer among men. Although treatments like androgen deprivation therapy have been effective for early-stage prostate cancer, advanced stages, such as castration-resistant prostate cancer, present significant treatment challenges due to resistance to therapies. Current approaches targeting androgen receptor (AR) signaling, such as taxanes and newer agents, show limited success. Cisplatin, a widely used anticancer drug, has been used in combination therapies but its use is limited by severe ...

Sign language serves as a sophisticated means of communication vital to individuals who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, relying on hand movements, facial expressions, and body language to convey nuanced meaning. American Sign Language exemplifies this linguistic complexity with its distinct grammar and syntax. Sign language is not universal; rather, there are many different sign languages used around the world, each with its own grammar, syntax and vocabulary, highlighting the diversity and complexity of sign languages globally. Various ...

UTSA’s Office of Research today announced the launch of the Center for Space Technology and Operations Research (CSTOR), a new research center dedicated to advancing engineering, technology and operations that will support space missions between the Earth and the Moon, an area referred to as cislunar space, as well as the lunar surface. The center will address the growing demand for research and workforce development by civil, commercial and national security space agencies and companies. David Silva, UTSA distinguished professor of physics and astronomy, will serve as the center’s inaugural director. CSTOR will provide enhanced support ...

Craniopharyngioma (CP) is a rare brain tumor that develops in the regions close to the hypothalamus and pituitary gland. The CP tumors lead to complications like defective vision, neuronal defects, diabetes, and developmental problems. There are two primary subtypes of CPs: adamantinomatous craniopharyngioma (ACP) and papillary craniopharyngioma (PCP). These two subtypes are distinguished by their distinct genetic profiles. ACP is typically characterized by mutations in the CTNNB1 gene, while PCP is primarily associated with BRAF gene mutations. The primary course of action for treating CP is surgical intervention. However, the tumor's invasive ...

Among the many artificial intelligence and machine learning models available today for image translation, image-to-image translation models using Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) can change the style of images. These models work by using two input images: a content image, which is altered to match the style of a reference image. These models are used for tasks like transforming images into different artistic styles, simulating weather changes, improving satellite video resolution, and helping autonomous vehicles recognize different lighting conditions, like day and night.   Now, researchers ...

Allergic diseases such as asthma, atopic dermatitis, and food allergies have been increasing in frequency over the last few years. Food allergies in particular affect millions of people worldwide—this includes allergies to foods such as milk, peanuts, eggs and shellfish. They are typically caused by the immune system being hypersensitive to harmless substances in foods and the environment. Flavonoids are chemicals present in various fruits and vegetables that are known to have anti-allergic effects and show promise as natural allergic treatments. To better understand how these allergies can be treated, let’s look at an interesting anti-allergic mechanism in our cells. ...

How can we ensure that as many households as possible adopt not only solar panels, but also their own battery to store solar energy, a heat pump, and an electric car? Researchers at the Universities of Basel and Geneva have looked into just this question. Climate protection and the energy revolution must continue to make progress, and private households could make a significant contribution to this goal if they would use environmentally friendly technologies such as solar panels, electric vehicles, and heat pumps. Dr. Mart van der Kam and Professor Ulf Hahnel at the University of Basel, Switzerland, conducted research into the political measures that would be necessary to fully realize ...

A new scientific study published in the journal Foresight concludes that human civilisation is on the brink of the next ‘giant leap’ in evolution. However, progress could be thwarted by centralised far-right political projects such as the incoming Donald Trump administration.  "Industrial civilisation is facing 'inevitable' decline as it is replaced by what could turn out to be a far more advanced ‘postmaterialist’ civilisation based on distributed superabundant clean energy. The main challenge is that industrial civilisation is facing such rapid decline that this could derail the emergence of a ...

Endocannabinoids in the brain play a key role in food intake and energy use. Modulating the action of these molecules could help fight obesity, say researchers at Université de Montréal’s affiliated hospital research centre (CRCHUM). For years, Université de Montréal medical professor Stephanie Fulton and her team have been unravelling the mechanisms in the human nervous system that control people’s need to eat and to engage in physical activity, and how their metabolism affects their mood. Their latest ...

Trappist-1 b is one of seven rocky planets orbiting the star Trappist-1, located 40 light-years away. The planetary system is unique because it allows astronomers to study seven Earth-like planets from relatively close range, with three of them in the so-called habitable zone. This is the area in a planetary system where a planet could have liquid water on the surface. To date, ten research programmes have targeted this system with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) for 290 hours. The current study, in which researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) ...

When one tectonic plate sinks beneath another, it generates magmas rich in volatiles such as water, sulphur and chlorine. As these magmas ascend, they release magmatic fluids, in which sulphur and chlorine bind to metals such as gold and copper, and transport these metals towards the surface of the Earth. As the extreme conditions relevant to natural magmas are very difficult to reproduce in the laboratory, the precise role of the different forms of sulphur in metal transport remains highly debated. However, an innovative approach ...

New TRAPPIST-1 observations with JWST underscore the complexities of confirming a planet's atmosphere using only broadband thermal emission data. This insight takes on added significance with the newly approved "Rocky Worlds" observation program by Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) which plans to apply this very method to study numerous rocky exoplanets orbiting cool stars.   The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is revolutionizing the study of exoplanets (planets orbiting stars other than the Sun), notably by enabling detailed spectroscopic studies of small rocky planets, but only if ...

Statement Highlights: About 800,000 people experience a stroke each year in the U.S., and due to recent advances in acute treatment, more people survive. Many stroke survivors experience long-term physical, mental and emotional health challenges. Palliative care is both a specialty and an approach to care that focuses on helping stroke survivors and their caregivers cope with these challenges by offering symptom management and improving communication about goals of care and quality of life. For a variety of reasons, palliative care is often underused, especially among Black, Hispanic and Asian patients.  A new scientific statement from the American Heart Association outlining palliative ...

Philadelphia, December 16, 2024 – Law enforcement provides critical community services, yet Black autistic youth often face elevated risk of negative outcomes during police interactions. In an effort to learn more about these encounters within the autistic community, researchers at the Center for Autism Research at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) conducted a study to examine perceptions and concerns of Black caregivers of Black autistic children regarding police interactions. The findings, published online today by the journal Autism, revealed important changes that could be made to improve the quality of interactions between police and Black autistic youth. Autistic ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – When young children’s behavior becomes challenging, many parents resort to threats – from taking away toys to threatening that Santa will skip their house, a national poll suggests. Parents of children ages three to five were most likely to say they use threats to address misbehavior – with a fourth threatening their child with no Santa or gifts – according to the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health. Many parents have also threatened to leave an activity or place, take away toys or not get dessert while nearly half of parents polled ...

The order Primates consists of not only our closest relatives on earth, the seven great apes, but also over 450 species of monkeys, lemurs, lorises, and galagos. Primates are fantastically diverse, from 400-pound gorillas to mouse lemurs (Microcebus) weighing just a single ounce. They exhibit some of the most remarkable behaviors observed in nature; chimpanzees ‘fish’ for termites in hollow logs using specially selected sticks, while orangutans use leaves as gloves to handle spiky durian fruit. They are some of the most intensely studied species on Earth, and yet there is no comprehensive molecular phylogenetic hypothesis of primate evolutionary history that summarizes the pattern ...