DALLAS, April 17, 2023 — Legalization of marijuana, for both medical and recreational use, is on the rise across the U.S. The American Heart Association, the world’s leading nonprofit organization focused on heart and brain health for all, warns that using marijuana may increase your risk of deadly cardiovascular diseases, heart attacks and strokes, according to research evidence noted in two scientific statements published by the Association. The Association’s 2020 scientific statement Medical Marijuana, Recreational Cannabis, and Cardiovascular Health, ...

EMBARGOED UNTIL 17-APR-2023 11:00 ET  Basel, April 17, 2023 Using a new approach for studying live embryonic mouse brains at single-cell resolution, researchers have identified an active multi-layer circuit that forms in the cortex during an unexpectedly early stage of development. Perturbing the circuit genetically led to changes similar to those seen in the brains of people with autism. The findings are reported today in Cell by a team based at the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel. “Understanding the detailed development of cell types and circuits in the cortex can provide ...

A research model of dietary intake in 184 countries, developed by researchers at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, estimates that poor diet contributed to over 14.1 million cases of type 2 diabetes in 2018, representing over 70% of new diagnoses globally. The analysis, which looked at data from 1990 and 2018, provides valuable insight into which dietary factors are driving type 2 diabetes burden by world region. The study was published April 17 in the journal Nature Medicine. Of the 11 dietary factors considered, three had an outsized contribution to the rising global incidence of type 2 diabetes: ...

Scientists can now use light to activate protein functions both inside and outside of living cells. The new method, called light-activated SpyLigation, can turn on proteins that are normally off to allow researchers to study and control them in more detail. This technology has potential uses in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and understanding how the body works. Proteins perform nearly every important task in biology, including processing DNA, metabolizing nutrients, and fighting off infections. When, where, and how proteins become active is important for a variety of biological processes. Increasingly, ...

About The Study: In this national multicenter cohort study of inpatients with COVID-19, early administration of dexamethasone was associated with significantly reduced odds of mortality or discharge to hospice in those requiring supplemental oxygen or mechanical ventilation and/or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation but not in those requiring no supplemental oxygen or noninvasive positive pressure ventilation. These results support the continued use of systemic dexamethasone in patients hospitalized with COVID-19.  Authors: Laine ...

The standard treatment for patients with multiple myeloma often includes stem cell transplantation in which the patient’s own stem cells are harvested and stored while the patient receives intensive chemotherapy to kill the cancer. Then, the patient’s stem cells are returned to the patient to help with recovery. But for a significant proportion of patients, the number of stem cells that can be harvested is not optimal for transplant and negatively affects patient outcomes. However, an international phase 3 clinical trial led by physicians at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has shown that the investigational ...

Immunotherapy, particularly CAR T-Cell treatment for cancer, is extending the lives of many patients. But sometimes the therapy randomly migrates to places it shouldn’t go, tucking into the lungs or other noncancerous tissue and causing toxic side effects. A University of Rochester/Wilmot Cancer Institute team discovered the molecule responsible for guiding T cells toward tumors, setting the stage for scientists to improve upon the groundbreaking treatment. The next step is to find a drug that can manipulate the ...

Poverty has long been linked to shorter lives. But just how many deaths in the United States are associated with poverty? The number has been elusive – until now. UC Riverside paper published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association associated poverty with an estimated 183,000 deaths in the United States in 2019 among people 15 years and older.  This estimate is considered conservative because the data is from the year just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused spikes in deaths worldwide and continues to take its toll. The analysis found that only heart disease, ...

Self-assembled peptide supramolecular hydrogels have shown great application prospects in various areas, including tissue engineering, drug delivery, and biosensing. Precisely and flexibly controlling the mechanical properties of peptide hydrogels to match the targeted applications is important. The common methods to regulate the mechanical properties of supramolecular hydrogels generally include: changing the formula (different peptide sequences, adding cross-linking agents) or changing the environmental conditions (concentration, temperature, pH and ions), both of which inevitably change the chemical composition of the ...

Bifunctional acid−base catalysts are highly desirable for industrially relevant chemical processes. Owing to their ability to activate electrophiles and nucleophiles simultaneously, they allow the catalysis to proceed synergistically and cooperatively. Solid acid−base catalysts are particularly advantageous since they are reusable and result in no waste products. However, controlling the structure of such catalysts for cooperatively workable active sites is challenging. Simple and effective methods that enable the synthesis of high-performance solid acid−base ...

An international team of researchers from Leibniz University Hannover (Germany), the University of Twente (Netherlands), and the start-up company QuiX Quantum has presented an entangled quantum light source fully integrated for the first time on a chip. “Our breakthrough allowed us to shrink the source size by a factor of more than 1000, allowing reproducibility, stability over a longer time, scaling, and potentially mass-production. All these characteristics are required for real-world applications such as quantum processors,” says Prof. Dr. Michael Kues, head of the Institute ...

Researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) find that, when a stroke therapy is linked to a specific kind of lipid and injected into the blood, it is taken up preferentially in the stroke-lesioned brain   Tokyo, Japan – To get therapies into the brain after a stroke, researchers are increasingly making use of the blood–brain barrier, which allows only certain molecules to pass from the blood into the brain. In a study published earlier this year in Molecular Therapy, ...

BEER-SHEVA, Israel, April 17, 2023 – Scientific research must meet clear ethical guidelines to prevent harm to participants. However, research can also indirectly harm individuals and social groups, for example by shaping social perceptions and inspiring policy. Researchers receive little to no training on how to consider and minimize such harm. To that end, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's Dr. Niv Reggev and his international colleagues have published ten simple rules for socially responsible science. The ...

In parts of California’s iconic mountainous coasts, breathtaking beauty is punctuated by brusque signs warning spectators to stay back from unstable cliffs. The dangers of coastal erosion are an all-too-familiar reality for the modern residents of these communities. Now, with a new tool, researchers are bringing historical perspective to the hotly debated topic of how to manage these disappearing coastlines. Using a model that incorporates measurements of the amount of time coastal cliffs and their remnant deposits were exposed at the Earth’s surface, Stanford researchers found that the rate of cliff erosion in the past 100 years is ...

People living with long Covid who suffer from loss of smell show different patterns of activity in certain regions of the brain, a new study led by UCL researchers has found. The research used MRI scanning to compare the brain activity of people with long Covid who lost their sense of smell, those whose smell had returned to normal after Covid infection, and people who had never tested positive for Covid-19. Published in eClinicalMedicine, the observational study found that the people with long Covid smell loss had reduced brain activity and impaired communication between two parts of the brain which process ...

SAN ANTONIO — April 17, 2023 —Southwest Research Institute staff members have converged upon Detroit this week to share their respective expertise with the mobility industry at the 2023 SAE International WCX™ World Congress Experience. WCX is the “largest technical mobility event developed by the industry, for the industry,” according to SAE. The conference, which takes place April 17-20, invites mechanical, electrical and software engineers working in mobility from around the world to share knowledge and research to overcome the latest challenges facing the industry. As leaders in mobility and automotive research, ...

Through careful crossbreeding and selection, University of Maryland researchers have developed what may just be the perfect apples for American growers trying to adapt to a changing world. The two new apples, a yellow and a red one are heat-tolerant, blight-tolerant, low-maintenance, easy to harvest and not least, delicious-tasting. Both have been approved for patents and are awaiting the final grant from the U.S. Patent Office. They address a growing suite of problems the apple industry has been grappling with. The fruit has always been labor-intensive to bring to market, with trees that need to be trained, pruned, ...

Barcelona, Spain – 17 April 2023:  Thirty day electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) detects more arrhythmias than the standard 24 to 48 hours, according to late breaking science presented at EHRA 2023, a scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).1   Up to 20% of patients with HCM develop atrial fibrillation during the course of the disease2,3 and are at particularly high risk of stroke. Therefore, guidelines do not recommend the CHA2DS2-VASc score4 to calculate stroke risk but advise starting anticoagulant treatment in all patients with HCM ...

Edward Chouchani receives a Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for his work to decipher the molecular mechanisms that drive metabolic disease, with the aim of developing therapeutic interventions.  The Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise is a $50,000 recognition awarded annually by the Vilcek Foundation as part of its prizes program. Awarded annually since 2006, the Vilcek Foundation prizes recognize and celebrate immigrant contributions to scientific research and discovery, and to artistic and cultural advancement in the United States. The Vilcek Foundation prizes support the Vilcek Foundation’s mission to raise public awareness of the value ...

A parabolic dish on the EPFL campus is easily overlooked, resembling a satellite dish or other telecommunications infrastructure. But this dish is special, because it works like an artificial tree. After concentrating solar radiation nearly 1,000 times, a reactor above the dish uses that sunlight to convert water into valuable and renewable hydrogen, oxygen, and heat. “This is the first system-level demonstration of solar hydrogen generation. Unlike typical lab-scale demonstrations, it includes all auxiliary devices and components, so it gives us a better idea of the energy efficiency you can expect ...

Using a new detection method, UC Riverside scientists found a massive amount of methane, a super-potent greenhouse gas, coming from wildfires — a source not currently being accounted for by state air quality managers. Methane warms the planet 86 times more powerfully than carbon dioxide over the course of 20 years, and it will be difficult for the state to reach its required cleaner air and climate goals without accounting for this source, the researchers said.  Wildfires emitting methane ...

McMaster University researchers have developed a rapid and inexpensive test for Salmonella contamination in chicken and other food – one that’s easier to use than a home COVID test. The test, described in a new paper in the journal Angewandte Chemie, could improve food safety, reduce the cost of processing fresh poultry and other foods, and help to limit broad recalls to batches that have specifically been identified as contaminated. The researchers have shown that the test provides accurate results in an hour or less without the need for accessories or a power source, compared ...

PULLMAN, Wash. – Discovery of a gene in multiple mammalian species could pave the way for a highly effective, reversible and non-hormonal male contraceptive for humans and animals. Washington State University researchers identified expression of the gene, Arrdc5, in the testicular tissue of mice, pigs, cattle and humans. When they knocked out the gene in mice, it created infertility only in the males, impacting their sperm count, movement and shape. The researchers detailed their findings in the journal Nature Communications. “The study identifies this gene for the first time as being expressed ...

Embargoed until Monday, April 17th at 11AM (Israel time) On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day Tel Aviv University in cooperation with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) presents   The Annual Report on Antisemitism Worldwide – 2022: Haredi Jews – The Main Target of Antisemitic Assaults 2002 saw another sharp increase in the number of antisemitic incidents in the United States and other Western countries, alongside a decline in several other countries, including France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The report found that Haredi Jews are the main victims of antisemitic assaults in the West. Physical attacks, which ...

The SIMPATHIC Consortium, led by the Radboud University Medical Center and Amsterdam UMC, has developed a new approach to expedite the use of existing drugs for groups of patients with rare neurological disorders. The consortium has been awarded an 8.8-million-euro grant from the Horizon Europe program to further develop this innovative method. Traditionally, drugs are developed one disease at a time, which is costly and time-consuming. It often takes a long time before patients can use a new drug. The international ...