During the COVID-19 pandemic, lower occupancy in buildings led to reduced water use, raising concerns about water quality due to stagnation. Government warnings highlighted increased risks of chemical and microbiological contamination in water systems. Studies showed that reduced usage and stagnation could elevate heavy metal levels and decrease disinfectant effectiveness, affecting microbial growth. To address this, regular fixture flushing was recommended, which temporarily improved water quality but also revealed the complexities of managing building water systems effectively. In a recent study (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ese.2023.100314) ...

The study delves into hypersaline lakes in Xinjiang, China, exploring the genetic and metabolic diversity of microbial communities termed "microbial dark matters". Hypersaline lake ecosystems, characterized by extreme salinity, harbor unique microorganisms with largely unexplored biosynthesis and biodegradation capabilities. The research seeks to uncover novel biological compounds and pathways, potentially revolutionizing biotechnology, medicine, and environmental remediation by tapping into the untapped potential of these extremophiles. A recent study (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ese.2023.100359) published ...

While surgery to remove rectal cancer can be necessary and lifesaving, it can sometimes come with significant drawbacks, like loss of bowel control. According to a study led by Wilmot Cancer Institute researchers, patients with rectal cancer who respond well to radiation and chemotherapy are increasingly foregoing surgery and opting for a watch-and-wait approach. The study, published in JAMA Oncology, shows that the number of patients opting out of surgery rose nearly 10 percent between 2006 and 2020. These data reflect a shift toward what ...

Somewhere between 24 and 50 million Americans have an autoimmune disease, a condition in which the immune system attacks our own tissues. As many as 4 out of 5 of those people are women. Rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and scleroderma are examples of autoimmune disorders marked by lopsided female-to-male ratios. The ratio for lupus is 9 to 1; for Sjogren’s syndrome, it’s 19 to 1. Stanford Medicine scientists and their colleagues have traced this disparity to the most fundamental feature differentiating ...

Researchers led by Prof. LUO Ercang from the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry (TIPC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and their collaborators have developed an innovative heat-driven thermoacoustic refrigerator (HDTR) with a novel bypass configuration that significantly improves the efficiency of this technology. The study was published in Cell Reports Physical Science on Feb. 1. HDTR is recognized as a new, promising cooling technology with many advantages. For example, it has no moving parts, uses eco-friendly substances (e.g., helium and nitrogen), and is highly reliable. However, its relatively low efficiency ...

Small long-nosed (or dolichocephalic) dog breeds such as Whippets have the highest life expectancies in the UK, whilst male dogs from medium-sized flat-faced (or brachycephalic) breeds such as English Bulldogs have the lowest. The results, published in Scientific Reports, have been calculated from data on over 580,000 individual dogs from over 150 different breeds, and could help to identify those dogs most at risk of an early death. Kirsten McMillan and colleagues assembled a database of 584,734 individual dogs using data from 18 different UK sources, including breed registries, vets, pet insurance companies, animal welfare ...

About The Study: Physical activity was associated with better late-life cognition, but the association was weak in this systematic review and meta-analysis including 104 studies with 341,000 participants. However, even a weak association is important from a population health perspective. Authors: Paula Iso-Markku, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Helsinki, Finland is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.54285) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions ...

About The Study: In this study of 205 adolescent football players and 70 noncontact control athletes, there was evidence of discernible structural and physiological differences in the brains of adolescent football players compared with their noncontact controls. Many of the affected brain regions were associated with mental health well-being. Authors: Keisuke Kawata, Ph.D., of Indiana University in Bloomington, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.54235) Editor’s ...

(Boston)—Sabrina A. Assoumou, MD, MPH, the inaugural Louis W. Sullivan, MD, Professor of Medicine, and an associate professor of medicine at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine, has been selected to serve in the 2024-2026 cohort of New Voices in Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine at the National Academies. Participants are selected in recognition of outstanding achievements and the program provides an opportunity to identify and address pressing concerns for the nation.   New Voices ...

RICHLAND, Wash.—The circular economy just closed the loop on scrap aluminum, thanks to a new patent-pending technology developed at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. That twisted aluminum mesh, those banged up bicycle frames, and the used car parts now languishing in junk yards could gain new life as building structures such as door and window frames, facades, lighting, decorative features and a myriad of other uses—all while conserving nearly all the energy required to manufacture new aluminum products. It’s no secret that strong, yet light-weight aluminum parts are being ...

Combining these two twins-tech, electrospinning and electrospraying, to fabricate novel nanomaterials is an urgent area of research for materials scientists and biomedical engineers, according to a new paper by Professor Hu Jinlian of City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) published in Matter, a highly respected monthly journal encompassing materials science, from nano to macro, and from fundamentals to application. The electrospinning and electrospraying synergism (ESS) can positively impact diverse sectors, from bioengineering and ...

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a prevalent pregnancy complication posing significant health risks to both mothers and their newborns. Early detection and treatment of GDM are crucial to prevent adverse outcomes. Current screening methods, like glucose tolerance tests, are in after 24 weeks of pregnancy and have limitations in patient compliance and accuracy. A new study led by Lijian Zhao, Pei Sun, Hui Huang, Nan Li at BGI Genomics in collaboration with the Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, recently published on Briefings in Bioinformatics ...

University of Virginia scientists have developed a new approach to machine learning – a form of artificial intelligence – to identify drugs that help minimize harmful scarring after a heart attack or other injuries. The new machine-learning tool has already found a promising candidate to help prevent harmful heart scarring in a way distinct from previous drugs. The UVA researchers say their cutting-edge computer model has the potential to predict and explain the effects of drugs for other diseases as well. “Many common diseases such as heart disease, ...

A large multicenter clinical trial co-led by University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers large multicenter clinical trial co-led by University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers found that an antiseptic containing iodine resulted in about one-quarter fewer post-surgical infections in patients with limb fractures compared to another frequently used skin antiseptic. The results of the study of nearly 8,500 patients across the United States and Canada were published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study – which compared the ...

We may not always fully understand why our partners get jealous, and women and men often get jealous for completely different reasons. Two researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) decided to investigate whether people also know about these distinct differences between the sexes. “What do people think triggers women’s and men’s jealousy? How well do women understand men’s jealousy, and men women’s jealousy? We wanted to find out,” says Professor Mons Bendixen at the Department of Psychology. Men are more jealous ...

WASHINGTON — Both liberals and conservatives are more likely to believe that merit-based hiring is unfair after learning about the impacts of socioeconomic disparities, according to a study published by the American Psychological Association. People from across the political spectrum also are more likely to support programs that encourage socioeconomic diversity after learning about the effects of social class and low income, according to the research, published online in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. “Socioeconomic disadvantages early in life can undermine educational achievement, ...

Excavation workers have finished carving out the future home of the gigantic particle detectors for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. Located a mile below the surface, the three colossal caverns are at the core of a new research facility that spans an underground area about the size of eight soccer fields. Hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, DUNE scientists will study the behavior of mysterious particles known as neutrinos to solve some of the biggest questions about our universe. Why is our ...

Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) who were infected with COVID-19 experienced greater negative aftereffects in health and work loss than did similarly infected white participants, new research finds.   Despite similar symptom prevalence, BIPOC and Hispanic patients experienced greater negative impacts on their health status, activity levels, and ability to work compared with non-Hispanic and white patients participating in the ongoing multi-site INSPIRE clinical trial examining people with long COVID.   The findings are published in the journal Frontiers ...

ROCKVILLE, Md. — A member of the National Academy of Medicine is the new president of The Obesity Society (TOS), the organization announced today.  Jamy Ard, MD, FTOS, is professor in the Departments of Epidemiology and Prevention and Internal Medicine and vice dean of Clinical Research at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. He also co-directs the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Weight Management Center, where he oversees medical weight management programs. “I am honored to serve as president of ...

Updating passwords for all users of a company or institution’s internal computer systems is stressful and disruptive to both users and IT professionals. Many studies have looked at user struggles and password best practices. But very little research has been done to determine how a password update campaign can be conducted most efficiently and with minimal IT costs. Until now.  A team of computer scientists at the University of California San Diego partnered with the campus’ Information Technology Services to analyze the messaging for a campuswide mandatory ...

Chocolate valentines and candies with sweet sayings shouldn't be the only hearts you think about this February. It’s also American Heart Month, which puts a spotlight on cardiovascular health. According to the American Heart Association, heart disease is the leading cause of death for Americans, so it’s important to know the status of your own heart health. New methods for cardiac monitoring can be found in these five papers recently published in ACS journals. Reporters can request free access to these papers by emailing newsroom@acs.org. Future ...

The intricate relationship that exists between humans and the gut microbiome has become a hot research topic, and scientists are constantly uncovering new reasons why a healthy diet can lead to a healthier life. Dietary fibers are a particularly important aspect of this connection. When we ingest these compounds, which are mainly found in plant-based foods, our gut bacteria break them down into small molecules, called short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). Over the past few years, studies have revealed various important anti-inflammatory and immunomodulating effects of SCFAs. One of the ways SCFAs interact with ...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive loss of motor functions, which eventually leads to death within 5 years of its onset. This disease causes weakness and atrophy of limbs and other muscles, which affect mobility speech, eating, and even breathing in patients. Some drugs, including riluzole, edaravone, and sodium phenylbutyrate/taurursodiol are used for treating ALS, but with limited therapeutic benefits. Therefore, novel, effective ALS treatments are the need of the hour.  Multilineage-differentiating stress-enduring (Muse) cells are pluripotent stem cells ...

Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, in Sweden, have discovered a change in what scientists already knew about global warming dynamics. It had been widely accepted since the 1950s that global temperature rises were not consistent throughout the day and night, with greater nighttime warming being observed. However, the recent study reveals a shift in dynamics: with greater daytime warming taking place since the 1990s. This shift means that the temperature difference between day and night is widening, potentially affecting all life on Earth.   The ...

HOUSTON – (Feb. 1, 2024) – A team of Rice University researchers mapped out how flecks of 2D materials move in liquid ⎯ knowledge that could help scientists assemble macroscopic-scale materials with the same useful properties as their 2D counterparts. “Two-dimensional nanomaterials are extremely thin ⎯ only several atoms thick ⎯ sheet-shaped materials,” said Utana Umezaki, a Rice graduate student who is a lead author on a study published in ACS Nano. “They behave very differently from materials we’re used to in daily life and can have really useful properties: They can withstand a lot of ...