Abigail Lewis traveled all across the United States for college and graduate school, and she ended up researching lakes in her own hometown.  For one of her graduate research projects, Lewis analyzed 656 lakes across five continents with an international research team. The lakes in her hometown of Waukesha, Wisconsin, were among those included.  “To look back and pull together these two parts of my life has been really satisfying,” said Lewis, who will earn her Ph.D. in biological sciences this spring.  In a paper recently published in Global Change Biology, ...

Dr. Mustafa Akbulut, professor of chemical engineering, has teamed up with horticultural science professor Luis Cisneros-Zevallos to engineer longer-lasting, bacteria-free produce. According to Akbulut’s recent publication in Current Research in Food Science, the global fruit and vegetable market loses over 50% of agricultural fruit production during various stages of produce handling and post-harvest treatments. Many fruits and vegetables already have a layer of food-grade wax that is applied for cosmetic reasons and to prevent water loss. Akbulut’s research combines such wax with nano-encapsulated cinnamon-bark ...

NEW ORLEANS, LA - Ochsner Children's Hospital, ranked among the top hospitals in the nation for pediatric cardiology and congenital heart surgery, is raising awareness of the need for more pediatric-specific heart devices. As the only pediatric heart transplant program in Louisiana and the only program in the state to offer advanced mechanical support options for pediatric cardiology patients, Ochsner Children’s Hospital is committed to advocating for additional medical devices to enhance its high-quality care to pediatric patients ...

Many electric vehicles are powered by lithium-ion batteries that rely on cobalt — a scarce, expensive metal with high environmental and social costs. A team of researchers from Japanese and French universities have now developed a practical nickel-based electrode material that opens new avenues to cobalt-free batteries for electric vehicles. The researchers detailed their findings in a study published on Jan. 15 in the journal Energy Storage Materials. “There is an undeniable need for cobalt-free, high-energy electrode materials for lithium-ion ...

At the heart of advancing semiconductor chip technology lies a critical challenge: creating smaller, more efficient electronic components. This challenge is particularly evident in the field of lithography, the process used to create intricate patterns on semiconductor materials (called wafers) for the production of chips. Lithography uses a kind of template, called a photomask — or just mask — for creating patterns on semiconductor wafers. The industry is always looking for methods that improve resolution and manufacturability for both masks and ...

(MEMPHIS, Tenn., February 20, 2024) St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has appointed Lisa Jordan, MS, MBA, as the institution’s first-ever Senior Vice President of Technology Commercialization to lead industry partnerships and the commercialization of innovations. Jordan will work with researchers to bring a greater number of new technologies, innovations and scientific breakthroughs to the clinic, enabling breakthroughs from St. Jude laboratories to benefit more patients. The move, part of the institution’s 2022-2027 ...

A flurry of recent studies has found that microplastics are present in virtually everything we consume, from bottled water to meat and plant-based food. Now, University of New Mexico Health Sciences researchers have used a new analytical tool to measure the microplastics present in human placentas. In a study published February 17 in the journal Toxicological Sciences, a team led by Matthew Campen, PhD, Regents’ Professor in the UNM Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, reported finding microplastics in all 62 of the placenta samples tested, with concentrations ranging from 6.5 to 790 micrograms ...

There haven’t been many long-term studies on urban forests, but data collected from the Thain Family Forest, which the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) has been stewarding for more than a century, has provided an opportunity for scientists from The Forest School at YSE to study a century of changes of its composition. Using inventory data from 1937-2021, Eliot Nagele ’21 MF, who initiated the research while a forester at Thain and a student at YSE, documented changes in forest structure, diversity, and composition to assess the health of the forest over time. ...

LA JOLLA (February 20, 2024)—Surveys show most men in the United States are interested in using male contraceptives, yet their options remain limited to unreliable condoms or invasive vasectomies. Recent attempts to develop drugs that block sperm production, maturation, or fertilization have had limited success, providing incomplete protection or severe side effects. New approaches to male contraception are needed, but because sperm development is so complex, researchers have struggled to identify parts of the process that can be safely and effectively tinkered ...

Women working in organizations are frequently encouraged to cultivate connections to high-status individuals based on a prominent social network theory. But new research conducted in China and the United States suggests that having high-status connections can backfire for women. The study, by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Michigan, appears in Organizational Science. “Our findings reveal a social-network dilemma for women that is contrary to a widely accepted belief that women should build their network with high-status individuals,” said Catherine Shea, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior and Theory at Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School ...

DALLAS (SMU) – A new study from SMU psychologist Sarah Kucker and colleagues reveals that passive video use among toddlers can negatively affect language development, but their caregiver’s motivations for exposing them to digital media could also lessen the impact. Results show that children between the ages of 17 and 30 months spend an average of nearly two hours per day watching videos – a 100 percent increase from prior estimates gathered before the COVID pandemic. The research reveals a negative association between high levels of digital media watching and children’s vocabulary development. Children exposed to videos ...

SAN ANTONIO — February 20, 2024 —Southwest Research Institute will host its second Automotive Corrosion Symposium in Detroit April 11-12. The event, first held in 2022, is designed to foster communication among corrosion experts from within automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) as well as material, paint and other automotive suppliers over a wide spectrum of industry-identified corrosion issues. “Corrosion is a concern within the automotive industry, not just for cosmetic reasons, but because it can affect functionality and safety,” said SwRI Staff Engineer James Dante, one of the organizers ...

A Rutgers professor who studies and improves the design of algorithms – human-made instructions computers follow to solve problems and perform computations – has been selected to receive a 2024 Sloan Research Fellowship. Aaron Bernstein, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, was named one of 126 researchers drawn from a select group of 53 institutions in the U.S. and Canada. The award honors extraordinary creativity, innovation and the potential to become a scientific ...

Tokyo, The Digital Olfaction Society (DOS) announces a global initiative for 2025, aiming to digitize and transmit scents from various locations around the world for reproduction in Tokyo. This project intends to capture a wide range of fragrances representing the cultural diversity of the globe, leading to a significant development in Tokyo. Invitation for Worldwide Participation DOS invites teams from around the world to participate in this initiative. Whether located in major cities such as Berlin, New York, Dubai, or any place with a distinctive aroma, contributions ...

Researchers from the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Riga Technical University and the MESA+ Institute at the University of Twente have succeeded in arranging very small particles (10 µm to 500 nm, 10 to 100 times thinner than a human hair) in a thin layer without using solvents. This is a hugely important first step towards developing a new generation of sensors and electronics for a wide range of applications. “Common methods based on crystallising solutions are ...

By analysing ancient DNA, an international team of researchers have uncovered cases of chromosomal disorders, including what could be the first case of Edwards syndrome ever identified from prehistoric remains. The team identified six cases of Down syndrome and one case of Edwards syndrome in human populations that were living in Spain, Bulgaria, Finland, and Greece from as long ago as 4,500 years before today. The research indicated that these individuals were buried with care, and often with special grave goods, showing that they were appreciated as members of their ancient societies.  The global collaborative study, led by first author Dr ...

Smiling for just a split second makes people more likely to see happiness in expressionless faces, new University of Essex research has revealed.  The study led by Dr Sebastian Korb, from the Department of Psychology, shows that even a brief weak grin makes faces appear more joyful.  The pioneering experiment used electrical stimulation to spark smiles and was inspired by photographs made famous by Charles Darwin.  A painless current manipulated muscles momentarily into action – ...

Harbir Antil, Professor, Mathematical Sciences; Director, Center for Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence (CMAI), received funding for the project: “Efficient Algorithms for Optimization Problems with PDE Constraints.”  Antil and his collaborators are examining generic optimization problems constrained by partial differential equations (PDEs) with or without uncertainty. In case of uncertainty, a risk-averse optimization framework will be developed. Decomposition and Compression techniques will be utilized to overcome the high computational costs. Several applications in various disciplines such ...

Older people may be at greater risk of developing pancreatic cancer and have poorer prognoses because of age-related changes in cells in the pancreas called fibroblasts, according to research led by investigators from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.  The study, published online Feb. 8 in Cancer Research, provides clues as to why pancreatic cancer is more common and aggressive in older people. It may also help scientists develop ...

The University of Birmingham has signed a collaboration agreement with Vital Energi to develop and commercialise a range of innovative thermal storage solutions, which will help accelerate decarbonisation within the heating and cooling sector. The University and Vital Energi will work together over an initial four years to continue the development of thermal storage Intellectual Property (IP) with a view to bringing a number of products to market. As part of the agreement, the University has assigned several IP rights, including a number of patents, to Vital Energi. The implementation of thermal energy storage is imperative to address the challenges posed ...

Oocytes are immature egg cells that develop in almost all female mammals before birth. The propagation of future generations depends on this finite reserve of cells surviving for many years without incurring damage. In mice, this can be a period of up to eighteen months, while in humans it can last almost half a century, the average time between birth and menopause. How the cells accomplish this remarkable feat of longevity has been a longstanding question.  Researchers at the Centre for Genomic ...

A few years ago, astronomers uncovered one of the Milky Way’s greatest secrets:  an enormous, wave-shaped chain of gaseous clouds in our sun’s backyard, giving birth to clusters of stars along the spiral arm of the galaxy we call home. Naming this astonishing new structure the Radcliffe Wave, in honor of the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, where the undulation was originally discovered, the team now reports in Nature that the Radcliffe Wave not only looks like a wave, but also moves like one – oscillating through space-time much like “the wave” moving through a stadium full of fans. Ralf Konietzka, the paper’s ...

About The Study: Housing instability, as measured by eviction filings, was associated with a significantly increased risk of death over the first 20 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in this study that included 282,000 renters who received an eviction filing. Eviction prevention efforts may have reduced excess mortality for renters during this period.  Authors: Nick Graetz, Ph.D., of Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit ...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20, 2024 — The freshness of animal meat is an essential property determining its quality and safety. With advanced technology capable of preserving food for extended periods of time, meat can be shipped around the globe and consumed long after an animal dies. As global meat consumption rates increase, so too does the demand for effective measures for its age. Despite the technological advances keeping meat fresh for as long as possible, certain aging processes are unavoidable. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) ...

An international genetic study using multiancestry biobanks has identified novel genetic locations associated with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), the most common type of glaucoma and the leading cause of irreversible blindness globally. The findings, published Feb. 20 in Cell Reports Medicine, detail ancestry- and sex-specific genetic loci associated with POAG and implicate vascular and cancer-related genes in POAG risk.  “Although there has been significant progress using genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to explore the genetic pathophysiology of glaucoma in humans, there is still a lack of understanding of the underlying ...