An article in GCB Bioenergy describes why bamboo may be an attractive resource in efforts to develop environmentally friendly renewable energy to replace fossil fuels. The authors note that bamboo grows rapidly, absorbs carbon dioxide, and releases large amounts of oxygen into the atmosphere. They describe various processes—such as fermentation and pyrolysis—that can be performed to convert its raw material into bioethanol, biogas, and other bioenergy products. A tool with limitations is currently available for selecting the most appropriate bamboo species ...

The global burden of disease associated with water insecurity has traditionally focused on diarrheal disease as the most significant driver of infant and child mortality. However, a review in WIREs Water notes that there are many other ways that water insecurity can have adverse health and social consequences for children. Inadequate or unsafe household water can have a range of health effects in children from infancy to late adolescence. Household water insecurity can spread disease, cause interruptions to growth and development, lead to school absenteeism and interpersonal violence, and contribute to other aspects of children’s mental and physical health. “Because ...

A review in Clinical & Experimental Allergy highlights a problematic relationship between the infant formula industry and allergy health professionals. The authors express concern that this could undermine breastfeeding in countries such as India, whose allergy management practices are often extrapolated from guidance developed in high-income countries with low breastfeeding rates. The article by international experts in infant nutrition and allergy health documents the high rate of breastfeeding in India, where one-quarter ...

Higher testosterone levels during adolescence are associated with increased involvement of the brain’s anterior prefrontal cortex (aPFC) in emotion control, but the opposite effect occurs during adulthood. In a study published in Developmental Science, researchers investigated this switch by conducting brain imaging scans in the same individuals during middle adolescence, late adolescence, and young adulthood. The study, which included 71 participants, demonstrated that the positive effect of testosterone ...

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- New species continue to evolve the world over, as different groups of organisms separate and take divergent paths. What happens when you add climate change to the mix? That’s the question Thomas H.Q. Powell, assistant professor of biological sciences at Binghamton University, State University of New York, and his lab seek to answer in “Contrasting effects of warming in diverging insects,” recently published in Ecology Letters. In the 1850s, the apple maggot fly — a major agricultural pest ...

In a new study, researchers from North Carolina State University detected elevated PFAS levels in the blood of pet dogs and horses from Gray’s Creek, N.C. – including dogs that only drank bottled water. The work establishes horses as an important sentinel species and is a step toward investigating connections between PFAS exposure and liver and kidney function in dogs and horses. The study included 31 dogs and 32 horses from the community, and was conducted at the behest of community members concerned about their pets’ well-being. All of the households in the ...

Osaka, Japan – Lymphangiogenesis refers to the formation and remodeling of lymphatic vessels (a network of thin tubes that carry lymph in the lymphatic system), and it supports the transport of molecules and immune cells around the body. Recently, a team led by researchers at Osaka University has uncovered important insights into lymphatic cell migration and lymphatic vessel remodeling. Polydom (or SVEP1) is a kind of protein that is essential for making new lymphatic vessels; this is known because mice that do not express this protein have problems with lymphatic ...

 A research team led by Dr. Ji-Hoon Lee of the Department of Hydrogen Energy Material at the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS) developed a three-dimensional porous carbon-based current collector material and applied it to secondary batteries and supercapacitors to improve energy density and lifespan at the same time with Prof. Insuk Choi at Seoul National University and Prof. Jungho Shin at Gangneung-Wonju National University. KIMS is a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT.  A current ...

Alcohol-related deaths rose disproportionately quickly in the US among Black, Hispanic, Asian and American-Indian/Alaska Native populations at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, new research shows.    Detailed in The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, the peer-reviewed analysis of official data revealed that while the rate of deaths that can be directly attributed to alcohol increased sharply overall, there were stark ethnic and racial disparities.    “Racial and ethnic minority groups experienced disproportionately higher rates of unemployment, fear of Covid and financial strain during the pandemic,” says ...

Around 20% of women who needed fertility treatment, such as IVF, to conceive their first child are likely to get pregnant naturally in the future, finds a new UCL study. The first-of-its-kind research, published in Human Reproduction, analysed data from 11 studies of over 5,000 women around the world between 1980 and 2021, to evaluate how common it is to get pregnant naturally after having a baby conceived by fertility treatment. They found that at least one in five women conceived naturally after having had a baby using fertility treatment such as IVF mostly within 3 years. This figure remained unchanged, even when taking into account the different ...

A new study in rats suggests that xylazine, the active ingredient in a non-opioid veterinary tranquilizer not approved for human use, can worsen the life-threatening effects of opioids. The findings imply that when used in combination with opioid drugs such as fentanyl and heroin, xylazine may damage the ability of the brain to get enough oxygen, which is one of the most dangerous effects of opioid drugs and can lead to death. The study, published in Psychopharmacology, was led by researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health. Research has shown xylazine is ...

Press release: Under embargo until Wednesday 21 June 2023, 01.00 BST New research led by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London has found that community mental health patients who were prescribed antidepressants were significantly less likely to test positive for COVID-19 when admitted to inpatient care. The research, published in BMC Medicine, suggests that antidepressants – particularly the most commonly prescribed class called selective serotonin ...

ROCKVILLE, MD - The American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) is pleased to welcome Jennifer Covington as the Society’s Vice President of Membership and Meetings, an exciting and critical role for the Society as it looks ahead to an evolving landscape for scientific meetings and society membership. As Vice President of Membership and Meetings, Ms. Covington will oversee the development of revenue and results-oriented products and services in the membership, conference, and educational areas. Her responsibilities include the development of online and in-person conferences, workshops, and webinars; digital ...

The American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2023 awards, which honor distinction in service, outreach, education, and research. ASPB Innovation Prize for Agricultural Technology Renata Bolognesi, Stanislaw Flasinski, Sergey Ivashuta, Daniel Kendrick, Curtis Scherder, Gerrit Segers Bayer, Chesterfield, Missouri Charles Albert Shull Award José Dinneny Stanford University, Stanford, California Charles Reid Barnes Life Membership Award John Browse Washington State University, Pullman Natasha Raikhel University of California, Riverside Early Career Award Moisés Expósito-Alonso Carnegie Institute ...

The rate of eating disorder diagnoses among girls aged 13–16-years-old in the UK during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic (from March 2020–March 2022) was 42% higher than the expected rate based on previous trends, suggests a study published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal. The rate of self-harm diagnoses in the same cohort was 38% higher than the expected rate for the two-year period. As the largest and most targeted nationwide study in the adolescent population, and the first to cover two years of the pandemic, these findings are the best available evidence on eating disorder and self-harm diagnoses among young ...

Introducing widespread screening of newborns for a deadly disease called severe combined immunodeficiency, or SCID, followed by early treatment boosted the five-year survival rate of children with the disorder from 73% before the advent of screening to 87% since, researchers report. Among children whose disease was suspected because of newborn screening rather than illness or family history, 92.5% survived five years or more after treatment. These findings demonstrate for the first time that newborn screening facilitated the early identification of infants with SCID, leading to prompt ...

The sustainability and scalability of limited duration interventions in low- and middle-income countries remain unclear. A study published in The Lancet Global Health aimed to investigate the sustainability in reduction of blood pressure (BP) through a 12-month lifestyle intervention by community health workers (CHWs) to reduce BP in Nepal four years after the intervention ceased. During the 12-month intervention, female community health volunteers (FCHVs) visited participants in the intervention groups and provided lifestyle counselling and BP measurement every 4 months. At the end of the 12-month intervention, ...

Exposure to air pollution meant an average of around four extra days in hospital for Covid-19 patients, further increasing the burden on health care systems, according to a study published today (Wednesday) in the European Respiratory Journal [1].   The researchers say the effect of pollution on patients’ time in hospital was equivalent to being a decade older. Conversely, the effect of reducing exposure to pollution was 40 to 80% as effective in reducing patients’ time in hospital as some of the best available treatments.   In ...

The distant ancestors of modern horses had hooved toes instead of a single hoof, which vanished over time, according to researchers. The animals, such as the Eocene Hyracotherium, had feet like those of a modern tapir: four toes in front and three behind, each individually hooved with an underlying foot pad. In contrast, modern equids such as horses, asses, and zebras, have only a single toe, the left over original third toe on each foot, encased in a thick-walled keratinous hoof, with an underlying triangular frog on the sole that acts as a shock absorber.  An international ...

Critical insights into why airborne viruses lose their infectivity have been uncovered by scientists at the University of Bristol. The findings, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface today [21 June], reveal how cleaner air kills the virus significantly quicker and why opening a window may be more important than originally thought. The research could shape future mitigation strategies for new viruses.    In the first study to measure differences in airborne stability of different variants of SARS-CoV-2 in inhalable particles, ...

Pupils in the UK are not learning about potentially life-changing issues such as endometriosis, infertility, and miscarriage, according to a new study of curricula in science and in relationships and sex education. Researchers from University College London (UCL) looked at what schools are expected to teach 14–18-year-olds across the UK, using curriculum requirements and specifications set by exam boards. Findings, published today in the peer-reviewed journal Human Fertility, demonstrate significant gaps and variations in what pupils are taught ...

Hidden beneath the waves of coastal waters lies an important member of the marine food chain – seagrasses. These marine meadows are in many ways the unsung heroes of the ocean, benefiting humans and the planet by producing oxygen, removing carbon dioxide from the air, and providing food and habitat for marine life. But these submerged savannahs may be in danger of disappearing, according to a new Stanford study that modeled the distribution of seagrass species around the world at two different timepoints in the future. Climate change is expected to hit marine species hard, in part because oceans absorb an estimated ...

Growing up, Brian Kisida always enjoyed going to school. He especially enjoyed the broad spectrum of subjects he was able to explore, including the arts. Now, as an assistant professor in the Truman School of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Missouri, he is researching the relationship between arts education and student success. Over the years, Kisida, an expert on education policy, has seen the culture of education shift dramatically. “I saw the impact that the test obsessed culture had on schooling, students’ mental health and enjoyment of learning,” Kisida said. “I wanted to know why we were seeing these changes that seem to not be in line ...

“The development of Precious1GPT [...] has demonstrated the potential of our approach in deciphering the molecular mechanisms of aging.” BUFFALO, NY- June 20, 2023 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 15, Issue 11, entitled, “Precious1GPT: multimodal transformer-based transfer learning for aging clock development and feature importance analysis for aging and age-related disease target discovery.” Aging is a complex ...

“[...] we found no impact of the addition of metformin to [androgen deprivation] therapy on risk of metabolic syndrome associated with castration therapy and no additional anti-tumor effects.” BUFFALO, NY- June 20, 2023 – A new research paper was published in Oncotarget's Volume 14 on June 19, 2023, entitled, “Utilizing metformin to prevent metabolic syndrome due to androgen deprivation therapy (ADT): a randomized phase II study of metformin in non-diabetic men initiating ADT for advanced prostate cancer.” Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) can lead to metabolic syndrome (MS) and is implicated in ADT-resistance. Metformin showed antineoplastic ...