Reducing stimulant use was associated with significant improvement in measures of health and recovery among people with stimulant use disorder, even if they did not achieve total abstinence. This finding is according to an analysis of data from 13 randomized clinical trials of treatments for stimulant use disorders involving methamphetamine and cocaine. Historically, total abstinence has been the standard goal of treatment for substance use disorders, however, these findings support the growing recognition that a more nuanced perspective on measuring treatment success may be beneficial. The study, published in Addiction, was led by scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public ...

Boston – Like a criminal entering a witness protection program, cancer cells can shed their past and take on a new identity. Detecting such an identity-switch is particularly challenging when metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) advances from adenocarcinoma to neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC), a very difficult cancer to treat. Now, however, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the University of Trento, Italy, have developed a blood test, described in Cancer Discovery, that can ...

Cigarette smoking remains the leading avoidable cause of premature death in the United States, accounting for approximately 500,000 deaths or 1 in 5 deaths annually. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, most adults who smoke cigarettes started before age 18, so preventing cigarette smoking in adolescents is important to reducing smoking in adults.  In a new study, researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt College of Medicine and collaborators explored overall trends in cigarette smoking among a large sample of U.S. adolescents in grades nine to 12 from 1991 to 2021. They ...

Many edible, medicinal, and poisonous mushrooms that we are familiar with belong to the order Agaricales, which is a group of fungi with important economic and ecological value. Understanding the phylogenetic relationships of Agaricales can help us to know their evolutionary history and diversity, as well as their interactions with other organisms. Moreover, the phylogenetic framework of Agaricales can provide a basis for conserving biodiversity, such as measuring phylogenetic diversity and assessing the uniqueness and importance of different species.   Previous studies divided Agaricales into 8 suborders and 46 families, but the systematic position and phylogenetic relationship ...

Québec, January 10, 2024 – In people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), changes in neurons appear to activate immune cells. Lowering the inflammation could reduce the symptoms of the disease, according to a study led by Chantelle Sephton, a professor at Université Laval's Faculty of Medicine.    ALS is caused by the loss of upper motor neurons, located in the brain, and lower motor neurons, which extend from the spinal cord to the muscles. Using a genetically modified mouse ...

The frigid Arctic Ocean is far removed from the places most people live, but even so, “forever chemicals” reach this remote landscape. Now, research in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters suggests that per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) won't stay there indefinitely. Instead, they are transported in a feedback loop, with the Arctic Ocean potentially exporting as many PFAS to the North Atlantic Ocean as it receives, circulating the compounds around the world. To ...

Trailblazing engineer Ashok Veeraraghavan, Ph.D., Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science, George R. Brown School of Engineering at Rice University, is the recipient of the 2024 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Engineering from TAMEST (Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology). He was chosen for his revolutionary imaging technology that seeks to make the invisible visible. View a video on Dr. Veeraraghavan's groundbreaking research here.  Imagine taking a pristine picture through fog, smoke and rain. Imagine taking interior images of the human body through skin, bone ...

Forward-thinking biochemist Vincent Tagliabracci, Ph.D., Associate Professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center, is the recipient of the 2024 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Biological Sciences from TAMEST (Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology). He was chosen for his potentially life-saving research in understanding how enzymes work. View a video on Dr. Tagliabracci's groundbreaking research here.  Dr. Tagliabracci and his team at UT Southwestern Medical Center have shined a new light on an array of physiological processes that rely on enzymes called protein kinases (PKs) and their biological cousins called ...

A worldwide leader in nanoporous materials research, Shengqian Ma, Ph.D., Professor and Welch Chair in Chemistry, the University of North Texas, is the recipient of the 2024 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Physical Sciences from TAMEST (Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology). He was chosen for his innovative work in the field of decontamination. View a video on Dr. Ma's groundbreaking research here.  In a time of growing concern for the Earth and humanity’s ecosystem, Dr. Ma’s work could have an incredibly important impact on environmental and energy sustainability. His research was primarily ...

A true pioneer in space, robotics engineer Kimberly A. Hambuchen, Ph.D., Deputy Chief, Software, Robotics and Simulation Division at NASA Johnson Space Center, is the recipient of the 2024 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Technology Innovation from TAMEST (Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology). She was chosen for her seminal research in developing new methods for making robots more autonomous and usable by humans across a time delay. View a video on Dr. Hambuchen's groundbreaking research here. Dr. Hambuchen’s research focuses on human-robot ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Teens from larger families have poorer mental health than those with fewer siblings, according to a large analysis of children in the United States and China.   The details of the pattern vary depending on factors such as the spacing of sibling ages and the age of the siblings.   But the fact that the overall pattern was found in both countries is striking, said Doug Downey, lead author of the study and professor of sociology at The Ohio State University.   “Our results couldn’t have been easily predicted before we did the study,” Downey said.   “Other studies have shown that having more siblings ...

The origin of the vertebrate skull is a topic of much debate among evolutionary biologists. Some believe that the vertebrate head has developed as a result of modification of the segmental elements of the trunk, such as the vertebrae and somites. On the other hand, others believe that the vertebrate head has evolved as a new, unsegment body part, unrelated to other widely observed embryonic segments somites. Interestingly, previous studies on embryos have revealed the presence of some vestiges of somites ...

Procambarus clarkii is a crustacean species native to American freshwater bodies. Brought to Japan in the 1920s as a feed for frogs, this crustacean has slowly taken over the Japanese freshwaters by predation and propagation. In fact, in 2023, the red-swamp crayfish was designated as an invasive alien species by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment and of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. One way to control the growth in population of red-swamp crayfish and the accompanying crisis is to capture the red-swamp crayfish in their reproductive ...

Research Highlights: Despite drops in overall cardiovascular disease deaths from 1999-2019, cardiovascular disease deaths in which substance use was cited as a contributing factor increased an average of 4% per year, with the death rate accelerating to 6.2% from 2012-2019. Prominent increases in cardiovascular deaths associated with substance use were most notable among women, American Indian or Alaskan individuals, younger individuals, rural area residents and users of cannabis and psychostimulants. Identifying high-risk groups is crucial for prioritizing preventive measures to reduce substance use linked with cardiovascular disease deaths, particularly ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Sequencing all of the RNA in a cell can reveal a great deal of information about that cell’s function and what it is doing at a given point in time. However, the sequencing process destroys the cell, making it difficult to study ongoing changes in gene expression. An alternative approach developed at MIT could enable researchers to track such changes over extended periods of time. The new method, which is based on a noninvasive imaging technique known as Raman spectroscopy, doesn’t harm cells and can be performed repeatedly. Using ...

HOUSTON – (Jan. 10, 2023) – The brain is the most protected organ in the body, sheathed in a complex and nearly impenetrable barrier of specialized blood vessels. While this particular anatomical setup protects it from outside invaders, it also makes it difficult for researchers to study how specific genes are expressed ⎯ and how such changes in gene expression may lead to disease. Now Rice University scientists have developed a noninvasive way to monitor gene expression dynamics in the brain, making it easier to investigate brain ...

Barcelona, 10 January 2024 – Mutations, which occur continuously in every cell of our bodies, are a key contributor to cancer, ageing, and neurodegeneration. While exposure to mutagenic chemicals, or mistakes in cellular processes during DNA replication contribute to these mutations, the exact distribution and patterns of these changes across human chromosomes have remained a mystery until now. Dr. Fran Supek, ICREA researcher and head of the Genome Data Science lab at IRB Barcelona, and Marina Salvadores, PhD student ...

New research has revealed how light can be used to destroy infectious coronavirus particles that contaminate surfaces. Scientists are interested in how environments, such as surgeries, can be thoroughly disinfected from viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 that caused the COVID-19 pandemic. SARS-CoV-2 viral particles are composed of a core of nucleic acid chains that contain the genetic information of the virus, surrounded by a lipid membrane with proteinous spikes sticking out. Each component is necessary for infection. Researchers from the University of Southampton investigated how ultraviolet laser light destroys the virus by impacting each of these critical components. By using a specialised ...

Diarrhoea is, globally, the second largest cause of death for children under 5. Contributing to more than 500,000 deaths, only pneumonia kills more children each year. Climate change, driving increased flooding and droughts, threatens the fragile progress made in reducing the burden of diarrheal disease over the past decades. Together with the Amsterdam Institute of Global Health and Development, Amsterdam UMC is set to lead a global consortium in the hunt for improved interventions.   "We see that the impact of climate change on diseases transmission depends on the constantly changing interaction between climate events, local ...

In a survey-based study of 3rd to 12th grade students in Puerto Rico after 2017’s Hurricane Maria, certain symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were linked with a higher risk of using drugs or alcohol. The study, which is published in the Journal of Traumatic Stress, included 91,732 youths who completed a survey 5–9 months after Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico. Associations between PTSD symptoms and substance use were examined using a network conceptualization, which views disorders as stemming from interactions ...

Moisture levels in the soil can impact the effects that microplastic pollution has on soil fungi, according to new research published in Environmental Microbiology. By studying soil samples mixed with microplastics under different conditions, investigators found that when soil is well-watered, toxic chemicals in microplastics can leach into the soil and hinder soil fungal richness. With dry soil, however, the leaching of water-extractable chemicals is less pronounced and therefore less impactful on soil fungal structure. The researchers also noted that under dry conditions, microplastics help soil hold water for longer, which could help ...

A screening tool often used in primary care clinics to detect cognitive impairment has shortcomings when applied to ethnically and linguistically diverse older adults, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The study looked to see whether currently published English and Spanish cut points for cognitive impairment in the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) are appropriate in diverse community-based adults aged 65 years or older with cognitive concerns in the Bronx, New York. There were 231 participants (43% ...

Many businesses are making efforts to promote workers’ wellbeing, and numerous interventions are available at the individual and organizational levels. New research published in the Industrial Relations Journal found no evidence that individual-level mental wellbeing interventions like mindfulness, resilience and stress management, relaxation classes, and wellbeing apps benefit employees. The study was based on survey data from 46,336 workers in 233 organizations in the UK. Across multiple subjective wellbeing indicators, participants in individual-level mental wellbeing interventions appeared no better off than other workers. The study’s ...

The North Arabian Desert oases were inhabited by sedentary populations in the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE. A fortification enclosing the Khaybar Oasis—one of the longest known going back to this period—was just revealed by a team of scientists from the CNRS1 and the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU). This new walled oasis is, along with that of Tayma, one of the two largest in Saudi Arabia. While a number of walled oases dating back to the Bronze Age had already been documented, this major discovery sheds new light on human occupation in north-western Arabia, and provides ...

A new paper in Molecular Biology and Evolution, published by Oxford University Press, finds that HIV populations in people with higher viral loads also have higher rates of viral recombination. In effect, the more HIV in the blood, the easier it is for the virus to diversify. One of the reasons HIV has historically been so difficult to combat is the virus’s exceptionally high rate of recombination. Recombination enables the exchange of genetic information across strains of the virus and drives HIV’s evolution within people. This genetic exchange ...