A University of Queensland study has found humpback whales sing louder when the wind is noisy, but don’t have the same reaction to boat engines. Research lead Dr Elisa Girola from UQ’s Faculty of Science said this quirk of whale evolution could have consequences for breeding and behaviour. “Humpback whales evolved over millions of years with noise from natural sources but noise from man-made vessels is foreign to their instincts,” Dr Girola said. “It’s a ...

AUGUSTA, Ga. (May 11, 2023) – A class of drugs used for their ability to stop tumor cells from dividing is now under study for their potential to reduce the pain and damage caused by sickle cell disease, investigators report.  The drugs are called HDAC inhibitors, and the investigators have early evidence one called panobinostat can reactivate after birth the gene that produces fetal hemoglobin, which cannot sickle, says Abdullah Kutlar, MD, director of the Center for Blood Disorders at the Medical College of Georgia and Augusta University Health. Hemoglobin is the oxygen-carrying component of red blood cells, and with sickle cell disease it’s ...

Arlington, Va., May 11, 2023 – A new study published today in the American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC) suggests that allowing bedside nurses to independently order testing for C. difficile significantly decreased the amount of time to receive test results as compared to requiring physician approval. The findings suggest that the testing policy change could potentially decrease the risk of additional patient infections and the corresponding hospital economic burden. Individuals with C. difficile infection (CDI) can be asymptomatic or have ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio ­– Doctors have long stressed the importance of maintaining a healthy weight for improving overall health, but a large new study also suggests it could also reduce future gastrointestinal cancer (GI) risk. The study, published today in JAMA Network Open, found that an overweight or obese body mass index (BMI) in early and middle adulthood is associated with increased risk for gastrointestinal cancer. The study also found that frequent aspirin use did not modify this increased risk in overweight and obese individuals. Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer among men and women in the United ...

In a groundbreaking new collaboration, scientists at the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) have identified the types of microbes that associate with engineered oilcane. Further exploration of the oilcane microbiome may reveal opportunities to leverage plant-microbial interactions in these feedstocks, which could increase oil yields for sustainable bioenergy production. In terms of biomass, sugarcane is the world’s most-produced crop, and it’s not hard to see why; it provides the feedstock for 26% of the world’s bioethanol and 80% of global ...

Scientists at Simon Fraser University (SFU) and the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research (LIMR) near Philadelphia have found that a drug discovered at SFU and patented several years ago may have potential lifesaving results in the treatment of conditions leading to sudden cardiac death. The drug, known as AR-787, was originally discovered and designed by former PhD student Mena Abdelsayed as a pharmacological solution for arrhythmias. The so-called J Wave syndromes (JWS), consisting of Brugada syndrome and early repolarization syndromes, occur in about ...

The behaviors and actions of hypersocial species like humans are heavily influenced by the behaviors and actions of those around them. This was evidenced throughout the COVID-19 pandemic; protective measures such as masking and social distancing varied widely as these behaviors were affected by where people were and who they were around, which in turn affected disease prevalence and transmission rates. Now, researchers from the School of Arts & Science at the University of Pennsylvania and Queen’s University in Canada have produced a theoretical model for disease ...

Researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil have created an exercise training program that survivors of severe COVID-19 can safely perform at home as rehabilitation therapy for persistent symptoms after they are discharged from hospital. Findings of a study recently reported in the British Journal of Sports Medicine show that exercise can improve the quality of life for these patients, benefitting their health and functionality while reducing the number of persistent symptoms, such as muscle pain and weakness.  Long COVID (also known as post-COVID-19 syndrome) affects more than 40% of people who ...

DURHAM, N.C. – In 787 communities served by the United States’ largest utilities, 17 percent of households struggle to afford basic water services, according to a new analysis by researchers at Duke University. Nearly half the U.S. population lives in the communities covered by the analysis, which was published May 10 in the open-access journal PLOS Water. The analysis shows that 28.3 million people in those communities live in households that spend more than one day each month working to pay for water ...

ATLANTA—A novel type of protein nanoparticle vaccine formulation containing influenza proteins and adjuvant to boost immune responses has provided complete protection against influenza viral challenges, according to a new study published by researchers in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University. The findings published in the journal Small describe a promising influenza vaccine candidate that uses adjuvants, substances that increase immune response to a vaccine, to boost effectiveness against ...

CHICAGO, May 10, 2023 – For many people, there are few sounds as relaxing as ocean waves. But the sound of the seas can also convey deeper emotions and raise awareness about pollution. At the upcoming 184th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Colin Malloy of Ocean Network Canada will present his method to transform ocean data into captivating, solo percussion songs. The talk, “Sonification of ocean data in art-science,” will take place Wednesday, May 10, at 3:25 p.m. in the Indiana/Iowa room. The meeting will run May 8-12 at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile Hotel. To construct his compositions, Malloy employs sound from ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2023 MINNEAPOLIS – People who have sleep apnea and spend less time in deep sleep may be more likely to have brain biomarkers that have been linked to an increased risk of stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline, according to new research published in the May 10, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study does not prove that these sleep disturbances cause the changes ...

Humans smell. Each and every person has a unique body odor. People have been using commercial products to alter their scent for generations. From soaps to perfumes, people gravitate to floral and fruity smells. Whether we think these smells are good or bad is of little consequence to mosquitoes, transmitters of diseases that kill hundreds of thousands of people each year. Additionally, mosquitoes rely on plant nectar to get some sugars needed to sustain their metabolism in addition to needing nutrients in the blood to produce eggs. And humans with nutrients and a floral scent? That’s two strikes. In spite of these scents being right under humans’ noses, the impact of ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- While engaged in a physical task requiring effort, such as driving a car or carrying grocery bags, older adults are more likely than younger adults to be distracted by items irrelevant to the task at hand, a University of California, Riverside, study reports. The study assessed the interaction between physical exertion and short-term memory performance when distractors were present or absent in younger and older adults.  “Action and cognition, which interact often in daily life, are sensitive to the effects of aging,” said graduate student Lilian Azer, the first author of the research paper published ...

College Station, Texas (May 10, 2023) – Texas A&M’s Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture (IHA) is spearheading a study that focuses on advancing the concept of responsive agriculture and is seeking experts and leaders in the agriculture-food value chain to serve one of its three committees. The committees, along with a recently named Task Force, will help develop a road map to achieve responsive agriculture, an agricultural system and food environment that supports health ...

NORMAN, OKLA. – Taste is a complex neurological experience that has the potential to provide extensive, and perhaps surprising, information on how the brain makes sense of sensations and the organization of brain pathways. A research project funded by the National Institutes of Health, led by Christian H. Lemon, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Biology in the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences, aims to better understand how the brain processes taste and how those neural pathways can evolve. Taste ...

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) announced four high school students were selected from among a pool of graduating high school seniors throughout the US for the  ACM/CSTA Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing. Eligible students applied for the award by submitting a project/artifact that engages modern technology and computer science. A panel of judges selected the recipients based on the ingenuity, complexity, relevancy, and originality of their projects. The Cutler-Bell Prize promotes ...

Research Highlights Abdominal aortic aneurysm, a weakening and ballooning of the aorta, the largest blood vessel in the body, may result in a life-threatening rupture. In a small, preliminary study examining a potential treatment to keep small abdominal aortic aneurysms from growing to a dangerous size, intravenous administration of immune-modulating cells resulted in a significant decrease in pro-inflammatory cells, and with higher doses, there was a decrease in aneurysm size. In a separate small study, people with abdominal aortic aneurysms ...

The Science Neutrinos are subatomic particles that interact with matter extremely weakly. They are produced in many types of radioactive decays, including in the core of the Sun and in nuclear reactors. Neutrinos are also impossible to block—they easily travel from the core of a nuclear reactor to a detector far away, and even through the Earth itself. Detecting the tiny signals from neutrinos therefore requires huge devices that are extremely sensitive. The SNO+ experiment has just shown that a detector filled with simple water can still detect reactor neutrinos, even though the neutrinos create only tiny signals in the detector. The ...

In a new study, participants showed more empathy for an online anthropomorphic artificial intelligence (A.I.) agent when it seemed to disclose personal information about itself while chatting with participants. Takahiro Tsumura of The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI in Tokyo, Japan, and Seiji Yamada of the National Institute of Informatics, also in Tokyo, present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on May 10, 2023. The use of A.I. in daily life is increasing, raising interest in factors that might contribute to the level of trust and acceptance people feel towards A.I. agents. Prior research has suggested that people are ...

Bird and bat fatalities at wind turbines increase during seasonal migrations – information which could aid their protection, according to a study published May 10, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by John D. Lloyd from the Renewable Energy Wildlife Institute of Washington DC, USA, and colleagues. While there have been local and regional studies on bird and bat deaths caused by wind turbines, this study looks at data from 248 wind turbine facilities across the United States—almost 30 percent ...

The geochemistry of copper artefacts reveals changes in distribution networks across prehistoric Europe, according to a study published May 10, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Jan Piet Brozio of Kiel University, Germany and colleagues. Early copper artefacts are considered to have a high cultural and historical significance in European prehistory, but limited information exists about how copper was used and distributed in Neolithic Europe. In this study, the authors analyzed 45 copper objects, including axes, chisels, and other items, from various sites dating to the 4th and 3rd millennia BC of Northern Central Europe and Southern ...

Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0284570 Article Title: Metabolomics during canine pregnancy and lactation Author Countries: Switzerland, Germany, Finland Funding: The costs were covered by the Freie Universitaet Berlin (examination, sampling) without any specific funding and PetBiomics Ltd provided material support (Analyses). PetBiomics Ltd employee Claudia Ottka and PetBiomics Ltd chairman Hannes Lohi were involved in the analysis and the preparation of the manuscript. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and decision to publish. END ...

The catastrophic Australian bushfires in 2019-2020 contributed to ocean cooling thousands of miles away, ultimately nudging the Tropical Pacific into a rare multi-year La Niña event that dissipated only recently. The research was led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and in Science Advances.  La Niña events tend to impact the winter climate over North America, causing drier and warmer than average conditions in the southwest U.S., wetter weather in the Pacific Northwest, and colder temperatures in Canada and the northern U.S. Because the emergence of La Niña can ...

Stephanie Lacour’s specialty is the development of flexible electrodes that adapt to a moving body, providing more reliable connections with the nervous system. Her work is inherently interdisciplinary. So when a neurosurgeon asked Lacour and her team to come up with minimally invasive electrodes for inserting through a human skull, they came up with an elegant solution that takes full advantage of their expertise in compliant electrodes, and inspired by soft robotics actuation.  The results are published in Science Robotics. The challenge? To insert a large cortical electrode array through a small hole in the skull, deploying the device in a space that measures about ...