A review of evidence from prior research provides new support for the possibility that the evolution of larger brains in some species was enabled through increased energy investment by parents in their offspring. Carel van Schaik of the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior in Konstanz, Germany, and colleagues present their arguments in a paper publishing February 28th in the open access journal PLOS Biology. Between different species, larger relative brain size is associated with cognitive benefits that favor survival. However, larger brains ...

Multiple factors including a women’s age, marriage status, education and how many living children she has, are associated with pregnancy termination in low- and middle-income countries, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS Global Public Health by Djibril Ba of Penn State College of Medicine, US, and colleagues. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), a woman’s decision to terminate a pregnancy is often impacted by a patriarchal structure of society, restrictive abortion laws, cultural and religious beliefs and economic factors. About 45% ...

An MUSC Hollings Cancer Center research team has created what team members believe to be among the first small molecules designed to stimulate immune cells to fight cancer. More importantly, these compounds inhibit a specific enzyme that hasn’t been targeted with small molecules for the treatment of cancer.    Small molecules are, quite literally, small. They’re hundreds of times smaller than monoclonal antibodies currently used in therapy, and they’re also structurally much simpler. Because of their low molecular mass, they are much more likely to enter cells. Aspirin, for example, is a small molecule ...

People who became carers during Covid-19 by helping family members, friends or neighbours in need experienced a sharp decline in their own mental health, new research from Lancaster University reveals. Using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) scale – a psychometrically validated and widely used index of psychological distress – researchers studied individual responses to the UK Household Longitudinal Study (Understanding Society). They looked at 4698 participants from a total of 11 surveys - three before COVID-19 and eight collected between April 2020 ...

Research by a team that includes two faculty members from the University of Colorado School of Medicine may change the treatment paradigm for patients with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), an allergic condition that causes chronic inflammation in the esophagus that can lead to esophageal narrowing and dysfunction. Glenn Furuta, MD, professor of pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition, and Paul Menard-Katcher, MD, associate professor of gastroenterology, helped lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded, multisite study that shows that a single-food ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- One of the most expensive steps in manufacturing protein drugs such as antibodies or insulin is the purification step: isolating the protein from the bioreactor used to produce it. This step can account for up to half of the total cost of manufacturing a protein. In an effort to help reduce those costs, MIT engineers have devised a new way to perform this kind of purification. Their approach, which uses specialized nanoparticles to rapidly crystallize proteins, could help to make protein drugs more affordable and accessible, especially in developing ...

INBRAIN Neuroelectronics, a Graphene Flagship spin-off company, has been named Spain’s most innovative company by leading Spanish news publication El Periódico. INBRAIN exists to decode and modulate neural networks to improve patients’ lives. More specifically, INBRAIN is harnessing the unique properties of graphene to develop high density and high-resolution brain interfaces coupled to an intelligent system with high signal processing power to provide breakthrough neuroelectronic therapies. The company was founded in 2020 by researchers from Graphene Flagship partner the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience ...

DETROIT (February 28, 2023) – The Henry Ford Medical Group today announced Brien J. Smith, M.D., MBA, a national expert in neurology and epilepsy, as its new Chair of the Department of Neurology. In this leadership role, Dr. Smith will oversee all clinical, research and administrative services for the Department of Neurology at Henry Ford Health. A veteran of Henry Ford, Dr. Smith was previously part of Henry Ford Hospital’s Neurology Department for 18 years, serving as Director of the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit, Medical Director of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Program, and Director of the Clinical Neurophysiology Program at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. He ...

Images Ankle exoskeletons that can help people extend their endurance are a step closer to reality with a new control algorithm, developed at the University of Michigan, that could enable future exoskeletons to automatically adapt to individual users and tasks. This would reduce or eliminate the need for manual recalibration.   Current exoskeletons are limited because they must be tailored to a single user performing a single task, like walking in a straight line. Any changes require a lengthy set ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Being overweight impacts your heart health in more ways than you might think. A new JACC review paper from Mayo Clinic outlines how obesity affects the common tests used to diagnose heart disease and impacts treatments. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. and globally, yet it is largely preventable. "Excess fat acts as a kind of filter and can skew test readings to under-or overdiagnosis," says senior author Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, M.D., director of preventive cardiology at Mayo Clinic. "Obesity affects ...

CHICAGO — Feb. 28, 2023 — Today, millions of individuals across the world live with limb loss, including thousands of combat-injured service men and women. Although significant progress has been made in the durability, control and function of prosthetic devices, they lack complete integration into the body. Now, with the award of a $1.5 million grant from the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP), Shirley Ryan AbilityLab — the top-ranked physical medicine and rehabilitation hospital — ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 28, 2023 Contact: Jillian McKoy, jpmckoy@bu.edu Michael Saunders, msaunder@bu.edu ## BU Researchers Receive $1.3M EPA Grant to Advance Climate Resilience among Mystic River Communities The three-year project aims to identify and address the cumulative impacts of chemical hazards and climate change that affect the 21 communities surrounding the Mystic River Watershed. The 21 communities that surround Greater Boston’s Mystic River Watershed are exposed to many of the central threats of climate change, including urban heat islands and coastal and inland flooding, while also confronting multiple chemical exposures. Now, with ...

Despite the remarkable progress in artificial intelligence (AI), several studies show that AI systems do not improve radiologists' diagnostic performance. In fact, diagnostic errors contribute to 40,000 - 80,000 deaths annually in U.S. hospitals. This lapse creates a pressing need: Build next-generation computer-aided diagnosis algorithms that are more interactive to fully realize the benefits of AI in improving medical diagnosis.  That’s just what Hien Van Nguyen, University of Houston associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, is doing with a new $933,812 grant from the National Cancer Institute. He will focus on ...

Researchers from North Carolina State University have taken technology aimed at helping humans suffering from lymphedema – in which the accumulation of excess lymph fluid causes swollen limbs – and developed a medical device to aid horses suffering from the same condition. In a pilot study the device, called the EQ Press, was successful in moving fluid up the limbs and into the lymph nodes. This could lead to relief for horses with chronic conditions, as well as with temporary swelling due to injury or inactivity. “Across the board, ...

Cartilaginous fish have changed much more in the course of their evolutionary history than previously believed. Evidence for this thesis has been provided by new fossils of a ray-like shark, Protospinax annectans, which demonstrate that sharks were already highly evolved in the Late Jurassic. This is the result of a recent study by an international research group led by palaeobiologist Patrick L. Jambura from the Department of Palaeontology at the University of Vienna, which was recently published in the journal Diversity. Cartilaginous fishes (sharks, rays, and ratfish) ...

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- Ants play a key role in forest regeneration, according to a new paper from Binghamton University, State University of New York. Walk through an old growth forest in early spring, and you’ll be dazzled by wildflowers, their jewel-like tones shining from the forest floor. But in newer forests, spring ephemerals such as trillium, wild ginger, violets and bloodroot are in shorter supply. The reason may lie with some less-flashy forest residents: Aphaenogaster sp., or the woodland ant. “Not a lot of people have heard of them, but they are ...

Amsterdam, NL, February 28, 2023 – StemJournal (STJ), published by IOS Press, is pleased to announce the appointment of new co-Editor-in-Chief, Giorgia Quadrato, PhD, effective immediately. Dr. Quadrato joins co-Editor-in-Chief Niels Geijsen, PhD, and an eminent international editorial board, who are dedicated to the success of the world’s international journal in stem cell research and therapy, and part of IOS Press’ StemHub. An outstanding scientist and researcher, Giorgia Quadrato, is an Assistant Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine ...

Montreal, February 28, 2023—For the first time in humans, a research team has shown that, as early as the first days of infection, HIV is able to create reservoirs where it will hide and persist during antiretroviral therapy. Until now, the scientific community did not know exactly when or how these viral reservoirs—the existence of which is a major obstacle to curing HIV—are established in human beings. In a study published in the journal Immunity, scientists led by Nicolas Chomont, a researcher at the CHUM Research Centre (CRCHUM) and professor at Université de Montréal, found ...

Researchers from the University of Cambridge have analysed more than 800,000 tweets and found that negative emotions expressed about geoengineering – the idea that the climate can be altered using technology – can easily fall into conspiracy. The researchers analysed tweets 2009 and 2021 tagged with #geoengineering. They used a combination of natural language processing, deep learning and network analysis to explore how public emotions, perceptions and attitudes have changed over a 13-year period. The researchers found that there is a large amount of ‘spillover’ between geoengineering ...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2023 – The gut is one of the most complex organs in the body. Inside, it teems with a diverse microbial population that interacts and cooperates with intestinal cells to digest food and drugs. Disruptions in this microbiome have strong links to a wide spectrum of diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, asthma, and even psychological and behavioral disorders. Valid models of the gut are therefore immensely useful for understanding its function and associated ailments. In APL Bioengineering, by AIP Publishing, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National ...

About The Study: The findings of this diagnostic study with 167 participants suggest that breath analysis has promise for COVID-19 detection. However, similar to rapid antigen testing, the emergence of new variants poses diagnostic challenges. The results of this study warrant additional evaluation on how to overcome these challenges to use breath analysis to improve the diagnosis and care of patients.  Authors: Xudong Fan, Ph.D., and Kevin R. Ward, M.D., of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, are the corresponding authors.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website ...

About The Study: In this study of National Institutes of Health (NIH) investigators from 1991 to 2020, researchers found a growing gap among NIH investigators that created a cohort of highly funded NIH investigators. Importantly, there were persistent gender, ethnic, and racial inequities among this elite class of super principal investigators (investigators receiving three or more research project grants). As the NIH develops critical initiatives and reforms to promote equity among its investigators, consideration of the persistent gender and ethnic and racial gaps in this elite class ...

Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, killing someone in the United States every 34 seconds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A new study by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, conducted the first population-based study on patients’ nonacceptance of statin therapy recommendations. The study found that in patients at high risk of developing cardiovascular disease, over 20 percent refused to take statin medications. They were particularly ...

Inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis have complex disease mechanisms that can differ from patient to patient with the same diagnosis. This means that currently available drugs have little effect on many patients. Using so-called digital twins, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now obtained a deeper understanding of the “off and on” proteins that control these diseases. The study, which is published in Cell Reports Medicine, can lead to more personalised drug therapies. Many patients with inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, never feel fully healthy despite being on medication. ...

  Saad Bhamla was in his backyard when he noticed something he had never seen before: an insect urinating. Although nearly impossible to see, the insect formed an almost perfectly round droplet on its tail and then launched it away so quickly that it seemed to disappear. The tiny insect relieved itself repeatedly for hours. It’s generally taken for granted that what goes in must come out, so when it comes to fluid dynamics in animals, the research is largely focused on feeding rather than excretion. But Bhamla, an assistant professor in the School ...