Wild banana relatives of mainland Southeast Asia reveal hidden diversity and the urgent need to preserve nature’s genetic resources for future crops ### Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0307592 Article Title: Musa species in mainland Southeast Asia: From wild to domesticate Author Countries: France, U.S., Vietnam, Lao P.D.R., China Funding: This study was funded by the Sud Expert Plantes Développement Durable programme through the DivBa SEP2D project (AAP3-97) and the BforBB open science project supported by the Agropolis Fondation under the reference ID 1605-011 through the “Investissements ...

A century of data uncovers how chestnut blight has devastated the American chestnut - and how forest composition has evolved since - in Shenanoah National Park, Virginia ### Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0306748 Article Title: Floristic changes following the chestnut blight may be delayed for decades Author Countries: U.S. Funding: We were funded by the Washington Biologists’ Field Club. This is a small organization that gives out only a few small awards each year. We do not have a specific grant number associated with this award. ...

Migration in adolescence may double the risk of psychosis in later life, and present even larger risk for migrants from racially minoritized young people, new data from five European countries suggests.  #### Article URL: https://journals.plos.org/mentalhealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmen.0000134 Article Title: Age-at-migration, ethnicity and psychosis risk: Findings from the EU-GEI case-control study Author Countries: Brazil, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom Funding: The EU-GEI Study was funded by grant agreement HEALTH-F2-2010-241909 (Project EU-GEI) from the European ...

Small iron-rich formations found within Western Australia’s Pinnacles, which are part of the world’s largest wind-blown limestone belt spanning more than 1000km, have provided new insights into Earth’s ancient climate and changing landscape.   The new research found the pinnacles were formed about 100,000 years ago during what was the wettest period in the past half-million years for the area, and very different from the Mediterranean climate Western Australia experiences today.   Lead author ...

Countries affected by severe climate change may also have a higher prevalence of violence against women, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The research, published in PLOS Climate, examined how climate shocks – such as storms, landslides and floods – might be linked to higher rates of intimate partner violence in the two years following the event. The researchers gathered data on intimate partner violence from 363 surveys conducted in 156 countries between 1993 and 2019, focusing on women who currently had a partner. Intimate partner violence was defined as any physical and/or sexual violence in ...

Networks, which include nodes and connections, can help researchers model dynamic systems like the spread of disease or how the brain processes information. Pairwise interactions between nodes can represent links between individuals  — how two neurons connect with one another in the brain, for example — but scientists also study interactions involving three or more nodes. These higher-order interactions reveal changes and phenomena beyond those found by looking only at pairs.  Yuanzhao Zhang, an SFI Complexity Postdoctoral Fellow, has studied how higher-order ...

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have identified a new potential risk marker for cardiovascular disease in women. A new study shows an association between low levels of an anti-inflammatory antibody and the risk of heart attack and coronary heart disease. The study is published in the Journal of American College of Cardiology. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for both women and men in Sweden. However, research on women's heart health has historically been neglected. Women are affected later in life and have more risk factors such ...

Climate change-related landslides, storms and floods are associated with intimate partner violence against women two years after the event, according to a study published October 2 in the open-access journal PLOS Climate by Jenevieve Mannell from University College London and colleagues. Low- and middle-income countries are disproportionately impacted by climate change’s acute (e.g., flooding) and chronic (e.g., rising sea levels) effects. Countries undergoing climate shocks are more likely to see increased intimate partner violence against women, possibly because climate disasters ...

Governments and other policymakers around the world wrestle with how to deal with people who are sceptical of official positions and guidelines, such as climate sceptics and antivaxxers. Earlier research has linked such scepticism to distrust of scientists among members of the public, while other studies have shown that it is difficult to erode sceptical attitudes that are psychologically motivated by factors such as bias against elite institutions or a conservative world view. New research from the University of Cambridge, reported in the journal PLOS ONE, suggests a more tailored approach could help ...

Electric vehicle owners on average are richer, drive more than the general population, and have a higher than average carbon footprint due to higher disposable income—but owning an EV reduces their traffic related emissions, and their personal experience of EVs is linked with positive attitudes and purchase intentions #### Article URL: https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000346 Article Title: But can it drive to Lapland? A comparison of electric vehicle owners with the general population for identification of attitudes, concerns and barriers related to electric vehicle adoption in Finland Author Countries: ...

The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF) is hosting a free webinar, “Toward Brain-Based Prediction of Recovery: How Neuroimaging Can Help Combat the Substance-Use Epidemic” on Tuesday, October 8, 2024, at 2:00 pm ET. The presenter, Sarah W. Yip, Ph.D., MSc, is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and the Director of the Yale Imaging and Psychopharmacology (YIP) Lab. Her lab uses neuropsychiatric research methods to identify biological mechanisms of mood disorders, addictions, and their treatments. The webinar ...

Nanoporous membranes with atomic-scale holes smaller than one-billionth of a meter have powerful potential for decontaminating polluted water, pulling valuable metal ions from the water, or for osmotic power generators. But these exciting applications have been limited in part by the tedious process of tunneling individual sub-nanometer pores one by one. “If we are to ever scale up 2D material membranes to be relevant for applications outside the laboratory, the ‘one pore at a time’ method just isn't feasible,” said recent UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) PhD graduate Eli ...

Historically, a university’s primary role has been to ensure students excel academically, but higher education can also change lives by supporting their well-being. Despite growing evidence of the importance of student well-being and an abundance of best practices, most institutions have yet to prioritize it as much as they do enrollment, graduation and grades.  A new study led by University of Maine researchers provides guidance on how institutions can support and enhance student well-being, and breaks down the various benefits for learners during and beyond their university career. It was published in PNAS Nexus, the ...

Living with dementia in communities with senior centers providing access to adult day health and social services was associated with fewer hospitalizations and lower health care use and Medicare costs, according to researchers from Rutgers University-New Brunswick and the University of Massachusetts Boston. The results, published in Heath Affairs Scholar, underscore the potential of senior centers in minimizing health care costs and acute care usage among those with dementia, particularly in smaller communities where centers provide access to such services. “Our findings provide evidence to support ...

Picture walking outside on a dark, cloudless evening. You look up to admire the stars — maybe even a planet, if you’re lucky — and a sense of wonder washes of you. New research from the University of Washington shows this might be more than a memorable experience: It could ultimately spark scientific curiosity and influence life choices. Rodolfo Cortes Barragan, research scientist the UW Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences (I-LABS), and Andrew Meltzoff, co-director of I-LABS and professor of psychology, recently co-authored a study in Nature Scientific Reports showing a link between the ability to see the stars ...

WASHINGTON, D.C., Oct. 2, 2024 — The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) today announced $37 million in funding awards through its Health Systems Implementation Initiative (HSII). These awards will support 25 projects implementing PCORI-funded comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) findings in participating HSII health systems.   Key Points: Twenty-five HSII participant health systems, covering more than 2,300 care sites across the country, received PCORI funding awards. HSII implementation projects will focus on one of two main areas: Improving antibiotic ...

A common mutation in the KRAS gene is associated with improved overall survival in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) compared with other variants, in part because the mutation appears to lead to less invasiveness and weaker biological activity, according to a multicenter study conducted at Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and other institutions. The research, published August 29 in Cancer Cell, demonstrates that KRAS mutations, which occur in about 95 percent of people who ...

(Toronto, Canada) – A new study from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), in collaboration with leading researchers in Pakistan, has demonstrated the effectiveness of an integrated psychosocial intervention aimed at improving parenting skills and symptoms of depression. The treatment was effective for male postpartum depression (PPD) in a cohort of Pakistani fathers, improving both paternal mental health and child development outcomes. “Male mental health, and especially postpartum depression in fathers, remains a stigmatized and understudied area,” says Dr. Ishrat Husain, the study's lead investigator and senior ...

Heart failure is a rapidly growing public health issue that can be difficult to manage on a global scale. But there are tools that exist that can improve outcomes, such as guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT). New UCLA-led research highlights the important role that these guidelines can play in reducing mortality rates for individuals suffering from heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), a type of heart failure affecting an estimated 29 million people worldwide. “These guidelines are being significantly underutilized in clinical settings globally and there ...

Access to publicly available human single-cell gene expression datasets, or scRNA-seq datasets, has significantly enhanced researchers’ understanding of both complex biological systems and the etymology of various diseases. However, the increase in accessibility raises a greater concern about the privacy of the individuals who donated the cells and the likelihood of their private health details being shared without consent.  Previous studies on these privacy breaches have focused on bulk gene expression data sharing, where the average expression levels of genes are measured across a large population of cells from a tissue or sample rather than an individual cell. Because single-cell ...

KEY POINTS Human judgement of food images is influenced by judgements that precede it Experiment tested reactions of more than 600 people making food choices Highly relevant given widespread use of Uber Eats or phone-based menus Finding could assist treatments for eating disorders or assist with food marketing Research at the University of Sydney has revealed that we don’t judge food simply on its merits but are influenced by what we have seen beforehand, a cascading phenomenon known as ‘serial dependence’. The research, published today in the high-impact journal Current Biology, was conducted by Professors David Alais ...

A team of scientists supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s The BRAIN Initiative®, including Davi Bock, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Neurological Sciences at UVM’s Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine, recently made a substantial advancement in neurobiological research by successfully mapping the entire brain of Drosophila melanogaster, more commonly known as the fruit fly. The study, titled “Whole-brain annotation and multi-connectome cell typing of Drosophila,” recently published ...

Boston, MA – A new thought piece led by the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute with collaborators from Duke University and Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute highlights the challenges facing healthcare researchers and decision makers in the quest to improve population health in a constantly evolving healthcare landscape. The authors offer strategies to enhance the effectiveness of pragmatic clinical trials and increase their impact on real-world healthcare settings. The Viewpoint appears October 2 in JAMA. Pragmatic clinical trials, designed to inform health ...

Inside every cell, inside every nucleus, your continued existence depends on an incredibly complicated dance. Proteins are constantly wrapping and unwrapping DNA, and even minor missteps can lead to cancer.   A new study from the University of Chicago reveals a previously unknown part of this dance—one with significant implications for human health.   In the study, published Oct. 2 in Nature, a team of scientists led by UChicago Prof. Chuan He, in collaboration with University of Texas Health Science Center at ...

Researchers at NYU Langone Health were awarded $1.6 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate changes in the eye that may indicate early signs of Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. The award, OT2OD038130, recognizes the eye as a part of the brain and its role as a window into cognitive and visual health. After the initial $1.6 million award, the grant may renew an additional two years, for a total of $4.8 million as part of the NIH Common Fund Venture Program’s new Oculomics Initiative. Oculomics is a relatively new term to describe the integrative use of technology and ...