ITHACA, N.Y. – Ask ChatGPT to find a well-known poem and it will probably regurgitate the entire text verbatim – regardless of copyright law – according to a new study by Cornell University researchers. The study showed that ChatGPT was capable of “memorizing” poems, especially famous ones commonly found online. The findings pose ethical questions about how ChatGPT and other proprietary artificial intelligence models are trained – likely using data scraped from the internet, researchers said. “It’s generally not good for large language models to memorize large chunks of text, in part because it’s a privacy concern,” ...

Despite the fact that people with sickle cell disease have a much higher risk of serious illness or death if they develop COVID-19, a new study shows they’re also much less likely than those without sickle cell disease to have gotten vaccinated against coronavirus.  Completion of the initial COVID-19 vaccination series was nearly two times lower for adults with sickle cell disease as others their age, the analysis of data in Michigan shows.  In in teens and children over 5, who overall have lower rates of COVID-19 vaccination, those with sickle cell disease were far less likely than other young people to have gotten their doses by summer 2022, the analysis ...

The Brookline Housing Authority (BHA) has partnered with Hebrew SeniorLife, New England’s largest nonprofit provider of senior health care and living communities, and the only senior care organization affiliated with Harvard Medical School, to provide community life services including resident services, fitness, social programming, and nursing in BHA’s senior housing sites. Hebrew SeniorLife brings to the BHA its model of housing with services called the Right Care, Right Place, Right Time (R3) program. This model uses a preventive approach to resident services, focused on one-on-one relationship building, community-wide ...

  MIAMI, FLORIDA (EMBARGOED UNTIL JAN. 9, 2024 AT 4 PM EST) – A multicenter collaboration led by researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has produced the first computational model for newly diagnosed multiple myeloma that predicts an individual’s personalized prognosis based on their tumor genomics and treatments. The prediction model for individualized risk in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, or IRMMa, improves on previous prognostic tools because it takes into account ...

“Identifying plasma proteins that regenerate aged or damaged ovaries could lead to more effective, targeted and/or preventive therapies for patients.” BUFFALO, NY- January 9, 2024 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 15, Issue 24, entitled, “Systemic changes induced by autologous stem cell ovarian transplant in plasma proteome of women with impaired ovarian reserves.” Patients with poor ...

People who own electric vehicles (EVs) are more likely to go a step further and add solar panels to their home, according to an analysis of a behavioral study by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Conversely, the impact of owning solar panels also has a bearing on whether a homeowner buys an electric vehicle but not as strongly. The study relied on a survey of 869 households in the San Francisco Bay Area. NREL’s Shivam Sharda, lead author of the newly published research paper that analyzes the ...

University of Colorado Cancer Center member Sana Karam, MD, PhD, has received a translational research grant from the V Foundation for Cancer Research, co-founded by ESPN and legendary basketball coach Jim Valvano, to study a new therapeutic that may help pancreatic cancer patients overcome resistance to radiation therapy.  “Pancreatic cancer is deadly. The only treatment that can cure it is surgery to fully remove the tumor, but that is only an option when the cancer is caught early, which is rare,” Karam explains. “Radiation alone to shrink tumors before surgery has been tried, but with limited benefit. By studying patient ...

New research overseen by University of Colorado Cancer Center member Rebecca Schweppe, PhD, could lead to improved treatment for people with thyroid cancer characterized by a mutation in the BRAF gene — a mutation also responsible for some types of melanoma, colorectal cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, and ovarian cancer.   “The BRAF mutation is a common mutation in thyroid cancer,” Schweppe says. “It has a high prevalence of mutations in two different subtypes — papillary thyroid cancer, or PTC, and anaplastic thyroid cancer, or ATC — and there's a lot of interest in targeting this pathway. Other tumor types, like melanoma ...

Waltham — January 8, 2024 — Proper procedures for diagnosing prolonged grief disorder (PGD) are not being followed in research into its prevalence, according to a study published in Harvard Review of Psychiatry, part of the Lippincott portfolio from Wolters Kluwer. What’s more, most published literature doesn’t clearly acknowledge the limitations of the methodology used.  The lead investigator was Margaret S. Stroebe, PhD, a clinical psychologist at Utrecht University and the University of Groningen ...

The University of Rochester will house a new national center focused on using tissue-on-chip technology to develop drugs more rapidly and reduce the need for animal trials. The National Institutes of Health awarded a $7.5 million grant to establish the Translational Center for Barrier Microphysiological Systems (TraCe-bMPS) at Rochester in partnership with Duke University. The center aims to develop five Food and Drug Administration–qualified drug development tools related to ...

Police reform movements often focus on improving police-public relationships. These ties are a focus of community policing and procedural justice, two significant reform efforts in policing worldwide over the last three decades. In a new article, researchers examine issues involved in these efforts, especially limitations to communication, and highlight implications for police-community relations. The article, by researchers at Arizona State University (ASU) and the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), is published in Psychology, Public Policy, and the Law. “Reform movements that try to improve relationships ...

Managing public order at large demonstrations, protests, and assemblies is a demanding and necessary task. A new book provides an international review of public order management experiences and effective practices. Through practical examples grounded in multidisciplinary theory and science, the book offers a roadmap to improve police response and increase safety at large gatherings in democratic countries. The book, Public Order Policing: A Professional's Guide to International Theories, Case Studies, and Best Practices, was edited by researchers at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV); ...

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced awards totaling $24 million for small businesses in 30 states and the District of Columbia. The 111 projects funded by DOE’s Office of Science include the development of computing, advanced materials, and scientific instrumentation that will help advance the department’s clean energy mission.  “Small businesses are the cornerstone of America and contribute significantly to the growth of our economy,” said Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, ...

Climate change is leading to an increase in sea level rise, putting millions of people in danger of severe coastal flooding in coming years. Sherif Abdelaziz, associate professor in the Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech, is collaborating with researchers from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, to find solutions to keep coastal areas safe by enhancing the resilience of sea walls against increasing coastal flooding. The PIONEER project is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and is aiming to be the initial step in a global collaboration to strengthen coastal ...

Key takeaways Astrophysicists have found that a large exoplanet known as WASP-69b is being trailed by a tail of gas seven times as long as the planet itself. The comet-like tail is the result of the planet’s gas atmosphere being burned off as it passes precariously close to the hot star it orbits and stretched by stellar winds. By studying this process in real time, scientists can better understand how thousands of other planets in our galaxy have evolved. WASP-69b is having a hot girl summer that never ends. The huge gaseous exoplanet, roughly the size of Jupiter and approximately ...

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have developed a new theoretical model explaining one way to make black silicon, an important material used in solar cells, light sensors, antibacterial surfaces and many other applications. Black silicon is made when the surface of regular silicon is etched to produce tiny nanoscale pits on the surface. These pits change the color of the silicon from gray to black and, critically, trap more light, an essential feature of efficient solar cells. While there are many ways to make black silicon, including some that use the ...

Researchers from University of Oxford, Arizona State University, and University of Iowa published a new Journal of Marketing study that examines how paying doctors to visit rural areas is a cost-effective way to provide reasonable access and effective care to most rural communities. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled “Bringing the Doctor to the Patients: Cardiology Outreach to Rural Areas” and is authored by J. Jason Bell, Sanghak Lee, and Thomas S. Gruca. Rural health care is in crisis. Between 2010 and 2015, the death rate from coronary heart disease was significantly ...

For patients with multiple sclerosis, a regular exercise routine is important for managing symptoms. Due to different causes of chronic pain though, physical exercise can be more difficult for some. Research published in the Journal of Pain from the University of Michigan found that widespread pain with nociplastic features, also known as WPNF, can make engaging in physical activity a painful task for some patients with MS. “WPNF is a chronic and diffuse pain which can be challenging ...

We are pleased to announce that the 2024 Frank R. Breul Memorial Prize has been awarded to Jessica Pac, Sophie Collyer, Lawrence Berger, Kirk O'Brien, Elizabeth Parker, Peter Pecora, Whitney Rostad, Jane Waldfogel, and Christopher Wimer for their article “The Effects of Child Poverty Reductions on Child Protective Services Involvement,” which appears in the March 2023 issue. The prize pays tribute to Professor Breul’s career as an educator, administrator, and editor of the Social Service Review (SSR) while on the faculty of the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice at the ...

DENVER/Jan. 9, 2023 – A new scientific publication featured in Veterinary Sciences will guide future wildlife rescue and rehabilitation after Australian bushfires. These findings provide critical information for improving koala care during subsequent fire seasons. Natasha Speight, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Adelaide’s School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, spearheaded the study, analyzing clinical data from koalas affected by the recent Australian bushfires. Beyond generalized skin burns, the study revealed severe footpad burns, hindering koalas’ tree-climbing abilities and escape from fires. The study ...

Six Virginia Tech and Virginia Cooperative Extension projects that help advance the competitiveness of specialty crops grown in the commonwealth have been awarded nearly $550,000 through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Specialty Crop Block Grants program. The projects are aimed at assisting Virginia farmers in making specialty crop production a driver of economic development. Specialty crops are defined as fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, and horticulture and nursery crops, including floriculture. Virginia Tech and Extension’s projects ...

The Speech Accessibility Project is now recruiting U.S. and Puerto Rican adults with cerebral palsy. Those interested can sign up online. Funded by Big Tech companies Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign aims to train voice recognition technologies to understand people with diverse speech patterns and disabilities. The project began recruiting people with Parkinson’s disease last spring, those with Down syndrome last fall, and more recently, those with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The project will also recruit people who have had a stroke. Researchers at UIUC’s Beckman Institute for Advanced ...

Amsterdam, January 9, 2024 – The Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease (JAD), published by IOS Press, is pleased to announce the appointment of new co-Editor-in-Chief, Paula I. Moreira, PhD. Dr. Moreira joins Editor-in-Chief George Perry, PhD, and an eminent international editorial board who are dedicated to the continuing success of the world’s leading journal in Alzheimer’s research and treatment. Dr. Moreira is an Associate Professor of Physiology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra and leads the MitoBD (Mitochondria in Brain Disorders) research group at the Center ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science will sponsor the participation of 173 undergraduate students and eight faculty members in three science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-focused workforce development programs at 13 DOE national laboratories and facilities this spring. Collectively, these programs ensure that both DOE and communities across the nation have a strong, sustained workforce trained in the skills needed to address the energy, environment, and national ...

One Sunday morning in February of 2021, Dave Duffy’s kids told him they had just seen a bobcat through the window of their home near the University of Florida’s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience outside St. Augustine, Florida. They knew their dad would want to know, because they had helped him countless times take samples of animal tracks in hopes of studying the creatures that left them. Initially skeptical – bobcats are rarely spotted during the day out in the open – Duffy eventually went to check and there they were: six clear bobcat prints in the sandy soil. With his kids’ help, he scooped up small soil samples from the ...