Study effectively reduced doctors’ actions for overused tests and treatment Routine testing for prostate cancer, urinary tract infections and blood sugar can result in unnecessary care and serious health problems  Practices stubbornly persist despite lack of evidence  CHICAGO --- When a doctor ordered a routine prostate screening for an 80-year-old man — as doctors often do — a dramatic yellow alert popped up on the electronic health record with dire warnings.  It flashed: “You are ordering a test that no guideline ...

If you’re pregnant, you may want to think twice before making a hamburger run or reaching for a prepackaged pastry, according to research published last month in the journal Environmental International.  Oddly enough it’s not the food that the report targets — not the fries, burgers or even the shakes and cakes — but what touches the food before you eat it.  Research shows that phthalates, a class of chemicals associated with plastics, can shed from the wrapping, packaging and even from plastic gloves worn by food handlers into food. Once consumed during pregnancy, the chemicals can get into the bloodstream, through ...

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) awarded a $5 million grant to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV)-led America’s Additive Foundry Consortium, which includes the University of Houston as a key partner. This is one of six grants – totaling about $30 million – to help enhance national security through community investments. The funding will enable the consortium to undertake a $7.5 million project designed to ensure that the U.S. military has a stable supply of domestically produced, high-quality tactical alloys critical for national defense. The ...

One vision for the future of computing involves using ripples in magnetic fields — called magnons — as a basic mechanism. In this application, magnons would be comparable to electricity as the basis for electronics. In conventional digital technologies, such magnonic systems are expected to be far faster than today’s technologies, from laptops and smartphones to telecommunications. In quantum computing, the advantages of magnonics could include not only quicker speeds but also more stable devices. A recent study in the journal Nature Physics reports an early-stage discovery along the path ...

Africa’s rice sector has major opportunities to increase its yield gains through improved agronomic practices while avoiding massive land conversion, a study by international scientists including a Husker co-investigator finds. The production advances can be important in meeting Africa’s projected food needs and reducing dependence on imports, the researchers concluded. Rice demand in Africa is projected to more than double over the next 25 years due to population growth and increased rice consumption. At present, Africa imports nearly 40% of its rice. “Nearly 15 million hectares of rice are waiting for yield improvement in Africa, ...

“The findings validate the combined PROX1/α-SMA gene set as a prospective prognostic biomarker and a central regulator in CRC progression and its TME.” BUFFALO, NY- February 7, 2024 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 16, Issue 2, entitled, “PROX1 interaction with α-SMA-rich cancer-associated fibroblasts facilitates colorectal cancer progression and correlates with poor clinical outcomes and therapeutic resistance.” The tumor microenvironment (TME) plays a vital role in tumor progression through intricate ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Rocks once buried deep in ancient subduction zones — where tectonic plates collide — could help scientists make better predictions of how these zones behave during the years between major earthquakes, according to a research team from Penn State and Brown University. Clues from rock formations in Alaska and Japan allowed the scientists to develop a new model to predict the pressure solution activity in subduction zones, the researchers reported in the journal Science Advances. ...

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research has chosen MUSC as one of four sites for the Black and African American Connections to Parkinson’s Disease (BLAAC PD) research study, a part of the Global Parkinson’s Genetics Program. BLAAC PD will explore the genetic basis of Parkinson’s disease (PD) in the Black community by genotyping more than 150,000 people worldwide, setting the stage for the development of targeted treatments. According to the Parkinson’s Foundation, approximately 36,265 people with ...

The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers, or ASHRAE, selected Jason DeGraw, a researcher with the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, as one of 23 members elevated to Fellow during its 2024 winter conference. A thermal-fluid scientist and mechanical engineer in the Thermal Energy Storage group, DeGraw was recognized for making substantial contributions in heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration, and the built environment. He contributes education, research, engineering design and consultation, publications, presentations and mentoring to ASHRAE. At ORNL, DeGraw works with the Building Technologies ...

(Memphis, Tenn. – February 7, 2024) St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital today announced Sara M. Federico, MD, has been named director of the institution’s Solid Tumor Division within the Department of Oncology. Federico is an internationally recognized leader in pediatric oncology whose contributions have defined the landscape of treatment for high-risk childhood solid tumors, such as neuroblastoma. “Dr. Federico’s experience will pave the way for new discoveries that will help advance cure rates for patients with high-risk cancers by identifying, testing and optimizing novel therapeutic strategies,” said Julie R. ...

INDIANAPOLIS – Pioneering cancer researcher Craig B. Thompson, MD, has been named the 2024 winner of the August M. Watanabe Prize in Translational Research. Awarded by the Indiana University School of Medicine, the Watanabe Prize is one of the nation's largest and most prestigious awards recognizing individuals focused on shepherding scientific discoveries into new therapies for patients. The prize is awarded to a senior investigator who has made a significant contribution to the field of translational science.  Thompson is the former president and chief executive officer ...

Generative artificial intelligence platforms, from ChatGPT to Midjourney, grabbed headlines in 2023. But GenAI can do more than create collaged images and help write emails — it can also design new drugs to treat disease. Today, scientists use advanced technology to design new synthetic drug compounds with the right properties and characteristics, also known as “de novo drug design.” However, current methods can be labor-, time-, and cost-intensive. Inspired by ChatGPT’s popularity and wondering if this approach could speed up the drug design process, scientists in the Schmid ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2024 MINNEAPOLIS – The drugs used to treat erectile dysfunction may also be associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study published in the February 7, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study does not prove that erectile dysfunction drugs reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. It only shows an association. Erectile dysfunction drugs, which work by dilating blood vessels to allow more blood ...

Imagine a coffee cup sitting on a table. Now, imagine a book partially obscuring the cup. As humans, we still know what the coffee cup is even though we can't see all of it. But a robot might be confused.  Robots in warehouses and even around our houses struggle to identify and pick up objects if they are too close together, or if a space is cluttered. This is because robots lack what psychologists call "object unity," or our ability to identify things even when we can't see all of them. Researchers at the University of Washington ...

“[...] the results of the studies presented in this review will hopefully provide the impetus for conducting additional preclinical and clinical studies to evaluate RUX in the setting of MM as well as other types of cancer.” BUFFALO, NY- February 7, 2024 – A new research perspective was published in Oncotarget's Volume 15 on February 5, 2024, entitled, “Preclinical and clinical evaluation of the Janus Kinase inhibitor ruxolitinib in multiple myeloma.” In this new paper, researchers Ashley Del Dosso, Elizabeth Tadevosyan, and James ...

Research Highlights: Although giving blood thinners along with clot-busting medication may help in treating heart attacks, it did not improve 90-day outcomes in people with clot-caused strokes. Enrollment in a large clinical trial, which had been planned to include more than 1,200 patients with ischemic stroke (clot-caused stroke), was halted after an independent data and safety monitoring board found no indication of benefit among the first 500 patients. The data analysis for the 500 enrolled participants found giving blood thinners along with clot-busting medication did not increase the risk of bleeding into the brain. Embargoed ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — As climate change affects the oceans, coastal communities, particularly those at the front lines of ocean warming and sea level rise, are facing pressures that could threaten their access to aquatic foods. “Climate change and other economic shocks are impacting how people access seafood, and typically households that are most reliant on seafood, such as those in Pacific Island countries, are most at risk,” said Jacob Eurich, a research associate at UC Santa Barbara’s Marine Science Institute, and a fisheries scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund. Which is why, he added, it is necessary to increase food system resilience in the area, ...

In the US, people of color who are killed by violence or die by suicide lose more potential years of life than white victims, according to a new study, which also explored factors that may contribute to these disparities. Gregory Zimmerman of Northeastern University in Boston, US, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on February 7, 2024. Mounting evidence suggests that, among victims of violence in the US, the average number of potential years of life lost—how much longer the victim would have lived if they survived—is greater for people of color than for white people. To deepen understanding, Zimmerman ...

Almost 1 in 5 Indian adults aged 60+ show signs of mild neurocognitive disorder, according to nationally representative data - more than previously recognized ### Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0297220 Article Title: Prevalence of DSM-5 mild and major neurocognitive disorder in India: Results from the LASI-DAD Author Countries: USA, UK, India Funding: This work was supported by the National Institute on Aging (R01 AG051125 (JL), R01 AG030153 (JL), U01 AG064948 (JL), R01 AG070953 (ALG)). The funders had no role in study design, ...

More biodiverse nature landscapes may better buffer against stress  - but only if you notice the difference, per experiment using videos of urban woodland ### Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0297179 Article Title: Does increasing biodiversity in an urban woodland setting promote positive emotional responses in humans? A stress recovery experiment using 360-degree videos of an urban woodland Author Countries: UK Funding: SF received a PhD Studentship funding from the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council, ...

The period of austerity politics from 2012 to 2018 was associated with steeper increases in frailty with age compared to pre-austerity between 2002 and 2010, according to a new study published February 7th in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Carys Pugh of the University of Edinburgh, UK, and colleagues. Previous research has linked a stalling in life expectancy growth to austerity politics implemented in response to the 2008-2009 financial crisis. However, the mechanism through which public spending cuts are associated with decreased life expectancy ...

An international team of scientists has created a tool that can aid in increasing climate awareness and climate action globally by highlighting messaging themes shown to be effective through experimental research. The web-based tool, and the methods undergirding its creation, appears in the journal Science Advances. The tool stems from a study involving nearly 250 researchers that drew more than 59,000 participants from 63 countries, including Algeria, China, Denmark, Germany, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Peru, and the United States.  “We ...

Tiny external structures in the wax coating of blueberries give them their blue colour, researchers at the University of Bristol can reveal. This applies to lots of fruits that are the same colour including damsons, sloes and juniper berries. In the study, published today in Science Advances, researchers show why blueberries are blue despite the dark red colour of the pigments in the fruit skin. Their blue colour is instead provided by a layer of wax that surrounds the fruit which is made up of miniature structures that scatter blue and UV light. This gives blueberries their blue appearance to humans and blue-UV to birds. The chromatic blue-UV reflectance ...

Researchers with McMaster University and Denmark-based pharmaceutical company ALK-Abello A/S have made a groundbreaking discovery: a new cell that remembers allergies. The discovery gives scientists and researchers a new target in treating allergies and could lead to new therapeutics. The research, published in Science Translational Medicine on Feb. 7, 2024, coins the brand-new cell as a type-2 memory B cell (MBC2). “We’ve discovered a type of memory B cell that had unique characteristics and a unique gene ...

The speed at which England’s oldest adults became frailer accelerated during the UK Government’s era of austerity politics, according to a new study.  Researchers say that the rate of frailty in people aged 85 and over in England increased 50 per cent faster per year between 2012 and 2018 compared with the preceding eight years.   The impact of frailty – a decline in a person’s mental and physical resilience to illness and injury – on the oldest in society must be considered should any new austerity measures be introduced, experts warn.    The study, led by researchers from the University of Edinburgh’s ...