The atoms of amorphous solids like glass have no ordered structure; they arrange themselves randomly, like scattered grains of sand on a beach. Normally, making materials amorphous — a process known as amorphization — requires considerable amounts of energy. The most common technique is the melt-quench process, which involves heating a material until it liquifies, then rapidly cooling it so the atoms don’t have time to order themselves in a crystal lattice.  Now, researchers ...

Ghent, 7 November 2024 – Scientists have uncovered how certain E. coli bacteria in the gut promote colon cancer by binding to intestinal cells and releasing a DNA-damaging toxin. The study, published in Nature, sheds light on a new approach to potentially reduce cancer risk. The study was performed by the teams of Prof. Lars Vereecke (VIB-UGent Center for Inflammation Research) and Prof. Han Remaut (VIB-VUB Center for Structural Biology). Bacteria and colon cancer Colon cancer ranks as the third most prevalent and deadliest type of cancer. Alarmingly, its incidence is rising, particularly ...

Neuroscientists have discovered brain cells that form multiple coordinate systems to tell us “where we are” in a sequence of behaviours. These cells can play out different sequences of actions, just like a music box can be configured to play different sequences of tones. The findings help us understand the algorithms used by the brain to flexibly generate complex behaviours, such as planning and reasoning, and might be useful in understanding how such processes go wrong in psychiatric ...

Some patients being treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors, a type of cancer immunotherapy, develop a dangerous form of heart inflammation called myocarditis. Researchers led by physicians and scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, have now uncovered the immune basis of this inflammation. The team identified changes in specific types of immune and stromal cells in the heart that underlie myocarditis and pinpointed factors in the blood that may indicate ...

Families purchased more school lunches and breakfasts the year after the federal government toughened nutritional standards for school meals. A new University of California, Davis, study suggests that families turned to school lunches after the Obama administration initiative was in effect to save time and money and take advantage of more nutritious options. Researchers looked at the purchasing habits of nearly 8,000 U.S. households over two years — one year before and after the change in standards. The results have important implications for policymakers and researchers, but also food manufacturers and retailers, researchers said. The study, ...

A recent prospective cross-sectional study in Thailand demonstrates that multitarget stool DNA testing is highly sensitive and specific for detecting colorectal cancer (CRC) among Thai individuals. Researchers believe that this testing method could serve as a viable non-invasive alternative to colonoscopy, especially in settings where colonoscopy is less accessible or less accepted by patients. This study was conducted by BGI Genomics in 2023, in collaboration with Professor Varut Lohsiriwat’s team from the Faculty of Medicine, Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Thailand. ...

Exhaled breath contains chemical clues to what’s going on inside the body, including diseases like lung cancer. And devising ways to sense these compounds could help doctors provide early diagnoses — and improve patients’ prospects. In a study in ACS Sensors, researchers report developing ultrasensitive, nanoscale sensors that in small-scale tests distinguished a key change in the chemistry of the breath of people with lung cancer. November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month. People breathe out many gases, such as water vapor and carbon dioxide, as well as other airborne compounds. Researchers ...

A Joint research team (Prof. Jun-hee Lee, Hyun-koo Kim, Jin-Wook Hwang, Jae-Ho Chung, the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Korea University College of Medicine) Announced the world's first compartive results of single-port robotic thymectomy using the single-port robotic system. The team compared and analyzed the perioperative outcomes of 110 cases of robotic thymectomy using the single-port robotic system and conventional video-assisted thoracic surgery(VATS) thymectomy from November 2018 to May 2024. The results showed that all robotic thymectomy performed were successfully ...

One out of 100 people will experience a psychotic episode in their lifetime, and these usually appear in late adolescence or early adulthood. A Canada-US team consisting of Sylvain Bouix, from École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS), Martha E. Shenton and Ofer Pasternak, from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Harvard University), and René Kahn, from Mount Sinai Hospital (New York) has just received US $33 million in funding—the equivalent of CAD 45 million—over five years from the National Institute of Mental Health ...

PULLMAN, Wash. – An epidemiological study found that 56% of a large breeding colony of Caspian terns died from a 2023 outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza at Rat Island in Washington state. Since then, no birds have successfully bred on the island, raising concerns that the outbreak may have had a significant impact on an already declining Pacific-coast population. As part of the study, a team including Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) as well as Washington State University researchers also documented that the avian flu virus H5N1was transmitted to harbor seals for the first time in the northeastern ...

Why do mice have tails? The answer to this is not as simple as you might think. New research from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) has shown that there’s more to the humble mouse tail than previously assumed. Using a novel experimental setup involving a tilting platform, high-speed videography and mathematical modelling, scientists have demonstrated how mice swing their tails like a whip to maintain balance – and these findings can help us better understand balance issues in humans, paving the way for spotting and treating neurodegenerative diseases like multiple ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Materials scientists can now use insight from a very common mineral and well-established earthquake and avalanche statistics to quantify how hostile environmental interactions may impact the degradation and failure of materials used for advanced solar panels, geological carbon sequestration and infrastructure such as buildings, roads and bridges. The new study, led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories and Bucknell University, shows that the amount ...

Vitamin D during pregnancy boosts children’s bone health even at age seven Children whose mothers took extra vitamin D during pregnancy continue to have stronger bones at age seven, according to new research led by the University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton (UHS). Bone density scans revealed that children born to mothers who were given vitamin D supplements during pregnancy have greater bone mineral density in mid-childhood. Their bones contain more calcium and other minerals, making them stronger and less likely to break. Researchers say the findings, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,   reinforce the importance of ...

The CRISPR molecular scissors have the potential to revolutionize the treatment of genetic diseases. This is because they can be used to correct specific defective sections of the genome. Unfortunately, however, there is a catch: under certain conditions, the repair can lead to new genetic defects – as in the case of chronic granulomatous disease. This was reported by a team of basic researchers and physicians from the clinical research program ImmuGene at the University of Zurich (UZH). Chronic granulomatous disease is ...

In a large multi-ethnic group of adults in the United States without cardiovascular disease, those with work-related stress were more likely to have unfavorable measures of cardiovascular health. The findings are published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. For the analysis, investigators assessed data collected between 2000 and 2002 for 3,579 community-based men and women aged 45–84 years enrolled in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Cardiovascular health was determined based on seven metrics—smoking, physical activity, body mass index, diet, total cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood glucose—with each metric contributing zero points, ...

Because nitrogen fertilizers contribute to global greenhouse gas emissions, scientists are looking for ways to modify agricultural plants so that they rely on less nitrogen. In research published in New Phytologist, investigators have found that blocking a particular protein may achieve this goal in potatoes. The protein, called Solanum tuberosum CYCLING DOF FACTOR 1 (StCDF1), binds to DNA and plays a key role in regulating tuberization in potatoes. In this latest research, investigators found that StCDF1 ...

An analysis published in the Journal of Accounting Research uncovers evidence that conflicts of interest arising from commercial ties lead to bias in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings. Investigators focused on Moody’s and S&P’s acquisitions of ESG rating agencies Vigeo Eiris and RobecoSAM. Their analysis revealed that after these ESG rating agencies were acquired by Moody’s and S&P, they issued higher ratings to existing paying clients of Moody’s and S&P. Specifically, ...

In Islamic cultures, purdah, which literally means “curtain,” is a practice that involves the seclusion of women from public observation and the enforcement of high standards of female modesty. Research published in the Journal of Management Studies examines the significance of purdah (spatial modesty) in gender relations in financial institutions in Pakistan. The research was based on the lived experiences of women and men working in two banks based in Pakistan. One of the study’s co-authors, Shafaq Chaudhry, PhD, of the University of Central Lancashire, in the UK, sought internships for six weeks ...

Attempts to discover a breakthrough dementia drug might be drawing attention these days, but traditional medicinal products can offer hints for preventive medicine. A research group led by Specially Appointed Professor Takami Tomiyama of Osaka Metropolitan University’s Graduate School of Medicine has found that administering the dried seeds of a type of jujube called Ziziphus jujuba Miller var. spinosa, used as a medicinal herb in traditional Chinese medicine, holds promise in restoring cognitive and motor function in model mice. By administering hot water extracts of Zizyphi spinosi semen to model mice with ...

[Vienna, November 6, 2024] — “Tell me how you read and I’ll tell you who you are.” By analyzing online reading behavior across millions of firms worldwide, a new study out of the Complexity Science Hub (CSH) connects how much information companies consume and how the consumption relates to their size. "The way companies consume information is reminiscent of biological organisms. They take in, transmit, and transform information to make decisions. As with organisms, there are important size differences. Larger firms tend to consume information more efficiently ...

A tightly tied waist cord of the underskirt (petticoat) traditionally worn under a saree, particularly in rural parts of India, may lead to what has been dubbed ‘petticoat cancer,’ warn doctors in the journal BMJ Case Reports after treating two women with this type of malignancy.  The continued pressure and friction on the skin can cause chronic inflammation, leading to ulceration, and, in some cases, progression to skin cancer, say the authors. This phenomenon has previously been described as “saree cancer,” but it is the tightness of the waist cord that’s to blame, ...

EMBARGOED UNTIL 6:30 PM EST Tuesday, November 5, 2024 Contact: Jillian McKoy, jpmckoy@bu.edu Michael Saunders, msaunder@bu.edu ## 10% of Children in High-Burden Tuberculosis Settings May Develop the Disease by Age 10 New findings also indicate that children who live in settings with a high burden of TB have a consistently high annual risk of developing TB infection throughout childhood. An estimated 1.2 million children develop tuberculosis disease (TB) and 200,000 kids die from TB worldwide each year, but the risk of developing TB infection and disease throughout childhood remains under-studied. Furthermore, the majority of studies on the pediatric burden of TB are informed by data ...

The Biden administration’s recently announced plan to replace all lead pipes in the U.S. is a reminder that the toxic metal remains a threat, even in a country that has largely banned its use. The smallest levels of lead exposure can cause a range of health damages over time, especially to children’s brain development. Stanford researchers Stephen Luby and Jenna Forsyth have spent years examining the widespread presence of lead in low-income countries, including in some commonly consumed products. They led a perspective published Nov. 5 in The Lancet Public Health that tallies lead’s global ...

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and defense technology company Lockheed Martin announced the signing of a new five-year master research agreement Oct. 31, reinforcing a longstanding partnership that helps UT take its research capabilities from the lab to the field. “This partnership allows UT researchers to conduct true translational research,” said James Andes, director of national security research initiatives for UT. “Our research concepts are matured by working with technical champions at Lockheed Martin, and as a ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The “RNA world” hypothesis proposes that the earliest life on Earth may have been based on RNA — a single-stranded molecule similar in many ways to DNA — like some modern viruses. This is because, like DNA, RNA can carry genetic information, but, like a protein, it can also act as an enzyme, initiating or accelerating reactions. While the activity of a few RNA enzymes — called ribozymes — have been tested on a case-by-case basis, there are thousands more that have been computationally predicted to exist in organisms ranging from bacteria to plants and animals. Now, ...