The epidemic of firearm injury and death in the USA is preventable, and the field of public health can offer practical solutions, argue Dr. Megan L. Ranney and colleagues in an opinion article in PLOS Global Public Health. Through harm reduction and community engagement programs, public health professionals, healthcare providers and community members can reduce the impact on individuals, families and communities. Despite the attention school and public mass shootings in the US gain, they make up a minority of US firearm injuries and deaths. Most firearm deaths are from homicide and suicide: ...

Political parties regularly claim to have their finger on the pulse and be able to read the public mood. Yet a new study challenges the idea that being political makes you good at understanding others: it shows gender, not politics, is a far more important factor in determining people’s social skills. Analysis of a sample of 4,000 people from across the UK, compiled by a team of psychologists at the University of Bath, highlights that being female and educated are the biggest determinants of whether you can understand or read others’ ...

The prevalence of sleep disorders, like sleep apnea, is on the rise in the U.S., but current protocols to conduct clinically accepted assessments are expensive and inconvenient. Georgia Tech researchers have created a wearable device to accurately measure obstructive sleep apnea — when the body repeatedly stops and restarts breathing for a period — as well as the quality of sleep people get when they are at rest. Under conventional methods, people who are suspected of having some sleep issue or disorder ...

To know when it’s time for a meal – and when to stop eating again – is important to survive and to stay healthy, for humans and animals alike. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence investigated how the brain regulates feeding behavior in mice. The team found that the hormone ghrelin activates specialized nerve cells in a brain region known as the amygdala. Here, the interaction between ghrelin and the specialized neurons promotes food consumption and conveys ...

A team of researchers at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy is reporting that by manipulating TAK1, a signaling protein that plays an important role in development of the immune system, they can slow down disease progression and improve muscle function in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).  DMD, caused by mutations in dystrophin gene, is an inheritable neuromuscular disorder that occurs in one out of 3,600 male births. DMD patients undergo severe muscle wasting, inability to walk and eventually death in their early thirties due to respiratory failure. The ...

Research question Can these contributions to standing postural control be quantified from CoP trajectories in neurotypical adults? Methods Instantaneous contributions can be negative or larger than one, and integrated contributions sum to equal one. Proof-of-concept demonstrations validated these calculated contributions by restricting CoP motion under one or both feet. We evaluated these contributions in 30 neurotypical young adults who completed two (eyes opened; eyes closed) 30-s trials of bipedal standing. We evaluated the relationships between limb contributions, self-reported limb dominance, and between-limb ...

A University of Texas at Arlington civil engineering researcher will use a NASA grant to help forecasters better predict extreme weather events using a variety of existing NASA data sources. Yu Zhang, associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, said the $638,000 grant will use ocean circulation data, atmospheric conditions and current weather information to make longer-range forecasting more reliable. Having a more accurate forecast could help officials make better decisions about the state’s water resources—for example, knowing when to release water from reservoirs. “Using ...

A University of Texas at Arlington engineering researcher who studies traumatic brain injuries  has received funding to use computer motion simulation that replicates the movements of a person performing activities that could lead to injury. The project, funded by a nearly $1 million grant from the Office of Naval Research Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP), will use real-time data of phantom head and phantom body reactions to ascertain what physical injuries could come from those motions. Ashfaq Adnan, a UT Arlington professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, is leading the project, called “System for Remote ...

To prevent our body’s cells from overflowing with garbage and to keep them healthy, the waste inside them is constantly being disposed of. This cleaning process is called autophagy. Scientists have now, for the first time, rebuilt the complex nanomachine in the laboratory that starts this process – and it works quite differently from other cellular machines. The researchers’ new insights could help open up new approaches for the treatment of cancer, immune disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases in ...

Today, large commercial jets fly around 580 mph. The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird introduced in 1966 is the fastest supersonic jet vehicle in the world, reaching speeds of more than 2,200 mph, nearly four times faster than a commercial jet. The fastest rocket-powered hypersonic vehicle developed in the late 1960s carrying a human has been the North American X-15, reaching a top speed of 4,520 mph, twice that of the SR-71. Recently, the U.S. Air Force has awarded a contract to engineer Project Mayhem with the goal to reach 4,603 mph. Now, imagine a vehicle that could fly much faster, maybe even above 6,905 mph, which is beyond nine times the speed of sound. The University of Texas at Arlington’s ...

PHILADELPHIA – The federal health system for reporting “adverse events” after vaccination, known as VAERS, is designed to assist in the early detection of complications and responsive action. But when the pandemic and advent of new vaccines for Covid-19 turned a spotlight on this formerly little-known system, the flood of web and social media references to it was accompanied by confusion about what the system is and what the reports in it signify. A new report from the Annenberg Public Policy Center examines misconceptions about the government’s Vaccine Adverse ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA — In computer graphics and computer-aided design (CAD), 3D objects are often represented by the contours of their outer surfaces. Computers store these shapes as “thin shells,” which model the contours of the skin of an animated character but not the flesh underneath. This modeling decision makes it efficient to store and manipulate 3D shapes, but it can lead to unexpected artifacts. An animated character’s hand, for example, might crumple when bending its fingers — a motion that resembles how an empty rubber glove deforms rather than the motion of a hand filled with bones, tendons, ...

Atlanta (May 24, 2023) - Chemical Insights Research Institute (CIRI) of UL Research Institutes and the Campus Safety, Health, and Environmental Management Association (CSHEMA), announce the publication of, “UL 200B: Guidance Document for Safe Use of 3D Printing for Institutions of Higher Education.” The availability of 3D printing has fostered creative and innovative learning experiences for many within the large population of students in higher education. There are roughly 17.3 million undergraduates in the U.S. alone. Because 3D printers are affordable compact, and user friendly, they can ...

(Memphis, Tenn.—May 24, 2023) When a cell divides, it retains information about how to grow and instructions about what type of cell to become. Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have gained a new understanding of how these processes can work, revealing a previously unappreciated role for the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex. The study was published today in Nature. When a cell undergoes differentiation, stem cells (the earliest cells that develop) undergo changes that transform them into a different type of cell, typically one with a more specialized function (such as a skin or muscle cell). As ...

– By Rachel Berkowitz Designing the next generation of efficient energy conversion devices for powering our electronics and heating our homes requires a detailed understanding of how molecules move and vibrate while undergoing light-induced chemical reactions. Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have now visualized the distortions of chemical bonds in a methane molecule after it absorbs light, loses an electron, and then relaxes. Their study provides insights into how molecules react to light, which can ultimately be useful for developing new methods ...

PHILADELPHIA (May 24, 2023) – The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing is pleased to announce that ten teams from health systems around the country have been selected for the Johnson & Johnson Nurse Innovation Fellowship Program (JJNIF), powered by Penn Nursing and the Wharton School–a ground-breaking, one-year, team-based nursing fellowship for Chief Nursing Officers, nurse executives, and senior nurse leaders. The fellowship is unique in that two nurse leaders – one Chief Nursing Officer or nurse executive and one other senior ...

Washington, DC (May 24) – Tambourine, in partnership with the Milken Institute Center for Strategic Philanthropy, today announced the ALS Breakthrough Research Fund and released the Fund’s first Request for Proposals (RFP). The Fund seeks to change how we understand and treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) by supporting innovative basic and discovery-focused research around the world. It particularly focuses on soliciting and funding creative, high-risk, high-reward ideas that might not otherwise fit existing grant programs but hold the potential to ...

HOUSTON ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights showcases the latest breakthroughs in cancer care, research and prevention. These advances are made possible through seamless collaboration between MD Anderson’s world-leading clinicians and scientists, bringing discoveries from the lab to the clinic and back. Recent developments include a new treatment option for relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma, a better understanding of protein variants that trigger tumor cell death and activate ...

Few effective strategies have been shown in randomized clinical trials to improve memory or slow cognitive decline among older adults. Nutritional interventions may play an important role because the brain requires several nutrients for optimal health, and deficiencies in one or more of these nutrients may accelerate cognitive decline. The COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS), a large-scale nation-wide randomized trial directed by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), a founding member of Mass General Brigham, included two separate clinical trials ...

Research led by UCL, in partnership with the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC LMB) and AstraZeneca, has identified a new compound that can stimulate nerve regeneration after injury, as well as protect cardiac tissue from the sort of damage seen in heart attack. The study, published in Nature, identified a chemical compound, named ‘1938’, that activates the PI3K signalling pathway, and is involved in cell growth. Results from this early research showed the compound increased neuron growth in nerve cells, and in animal models, it reduced heart tissue damage after major trauma and regenerated lost motor function in a model of nerve injury. Though further research is ...

A new analysis led by NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS) at the University of Florida found a 349 percent rise in seizures of illicit ketamine by drug enforcement throughout the United States from 2017 through 2022. The study findings suggest that rising use of ketamine, a short-acting dissociative anesthetic commonly prescribed off-label to treat chronic pain and depression, can increase the likelihood that people who use recreationally or who use inadvertently may encounter an adulterated and potentially harmful version of the drug. The study publishes online May 24 in JAMA Psychiatry. “This ...

About The Study: In this Danish nationwide cohort study, overall risk of new-onset mental disorders in SARS-CoV-2–positive individuals did not exceed the risk among individuals with negative test results (except for those age 70 and older). However, when hospitalized, patients with COVID-19 had markedly increased risk compared with the general population, but comparable to risk among patients hospitalized for non–COVID-19 infections. Future studies should include even longer follow-up time and preferentially ...

About The Study: In this study including 5,813 youths ages 10 to 19 who died of an assault-related firearm injury, socially vulnerable communities in the U.S. experienced a disproportionate number of assault-related firearm deaths among youths. Although stricter gun laws were associated with lower death rates in all communities, these gun laws did not equalize the consequences on a relative scale, and disadvantaged communities remained disproportionately impacted. While legislation is necessary, it may not be sufficient to solve the problem of assault-related firearm deaths among children and adolescents.  Authors: Deepika Nehra, M.D., of the University ...

About The Study: This study of 6.6 million individuals in Demark found that cannabis use disorder was associated with an increased risk of psychotic and nonpsychotic bipolar disorder and unipolar depression. These findings may inform policies regarding the legal status and control of cannabis use. Authors: Oskar Hougaard Jefsen, M.D., of Aarhus University Hospital–Psychiatry in Aarhus, Denmark, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2023.1256) Editor’s ...

“Cold atomic gases were well known in the past for the ability to ‘program’ the interactions between atoms,” says Professor Jean-Philippe Brantut at EPFL. “Our experiment doubles this ability!” Working with the group of Professor Helmut Ritsch at the University of Innsbruck, they have made a breakthrough that can impact not only quantum research but quantum-based technologies in the future. Density waves Scientists have long been interested in understanding how materials self-organize into complex structures, such as crystals. In the often-arcane world of quantum physics, ...