As if starting life with a potentially disabling genetic blood disease wasn’t enough, a study shows that almost two-thirds of babies born with sickle cell disease are born to mothers who live in disadvantaged areas.  But the study shows wide variation between states in the rate of births of babies with sickle cell to residents of areas with crowded housing, limited transportation options and other characteristics.  The researchers say their data could help public health authorities focus efforts to support the complex needs of children with sickle cell disease and their families.  The ...

  A new study published in the journal Diabetes demonstrates that a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonist, a member of a class of medication used to treat Type 2 diabetes and obesity, can lead to a rapid improvement in insulin sensitivity. Insulin sensitivity is how responsive cells are to insulin, an essential hormone that controls blood glucose levels. An increase in insulin sensitivity means insulin can more effectively lower the blood glucose. Reduced insulin sensitivity or insulin resistance is a feature of Type 2 diabetes. Thus, improved ...

A pair of proteins, YAP and TAZ, has been identified as conductors of bone development in the womb and could provide insight into genetic diseases such as osteogenesis imperfecta, known commonly as “brittle bone disease.” This small animal-based research, published today in Developmental Cell and led by members of the McKay Orthopaedic Research Laboratory of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, adds understanding to the field of mechanobiology, which studies how mechanical forces influence biology. “Despite more than a century of study on the mechanobiology of bone development, the cellular and molecular ...

Urbana, Ill. – When youth thrive despite difficult circumstances, they are usually lauded for their accomplishments. However, overcoming adversity may have a hidden physiological cost, especially for minority youth. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign looks at physiological changes among high-striving minority youth in early adolescence. “In the past decade, researchers have observed a phenomenon termed ‘skin-deep resilience.’ Historically, youth from disadvantaged backgrounds who ‘beat the odds’ were assumed to have universally positive outcomes. They are achieving academically, avoiding problematic behaviors, and scoring well on ...

Waltham — January 4, 2024 — Performed early – at the time of amputation – a procedure called targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR) can reduce pain scores and prevent complications related to abnormal nerve regrowth, suggests a study in the January issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.  "Our experience suggests that that acute TMR reduces neuroma formation, and lowers the incidence of both phantom ...

In a study designed to better understand sudden, unexpected deaths in young children, which usually occur during sleep, researchers have identified brief seizures, accompanied by muscle convulsions, as a potential cause. Experts estimate in excess of 3,000 families each year in the United States lose a baby or young child unexpectedly and without explanation. Most are infants in what is referred to as sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, but 400 or more cases involve children aged 1 and older, and in what is called sudden unexplained death in children (SUDC). Over half of these children are toddlers. The study findings come from a registry of more than 300 SUDC cases, set up ...

CORNELL UNIVERSITY MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE FOR RELEASE: Jan. 4, 2024 Kaitlyn Serrao 607-882-1140 kms465@cornell.edu Where’s the snow? Northeastern cities see record temps, low snowfall in 2023 ITHACA, N.Y. - In the Northeastern United States, warming average temperatures for most all climate data sites in December 2023 ranged from 3.6 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit above normal – making 2023 the warmest year on record for 13 of the region’s 35 major locations, including New York City. A total of 28 cities in the region saw one of their top-five warmest years, according to a report Jan. 2 ...

More than 13,000 physicists from around the world will convene to present groundbreaking research at the American Physical Society’s (APS) March Meeting. The conference will be held in person in Minneapolis and online everywhere March 3-8. Scientific Program The scientific program includes nearly 900 sessions and 11,000 individual presentations on new research in climate science, medicine, biological physics, quantum information, superconductivity, condensed matter, and more. For more information, search the scientific program. All times are in Central time.  Hybrid Format The March Meeting will have both in-person and online experiences. ...

In and out of the workplace, people often keep adverse information about themselves secret because they worry that others will judge them harshly. But those fears are overblown, according to new research from the McCombs School of Business. In fact, when study participants pushed through fear to reveal a secret, those in whom they confided were significantly more charitable than they expected. “When we’re thinking about conveying negative information about ourselves, we’re focused on the content of the message,” said study co-author Amit Kumar, assistant professor of marketing at Texas McCombs. “But the ...

An international collaborative study led by postdoctoral scientist, Dr. Maimuna Paul, and child neurologist, Dr. Hsiao-Tuan Chao, an assistant professor at Baylor College, a faculty member with the Cain Pediatric Neurology Research Foundation Laboratories at the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) at Texas Children’s Hospital, and an investigator at the McNair Medical Institute with The Robert and Janice McNair Foundation, recently discovered that variants in the PPFIA3 gene ...

As part of continued efforts to bolster the integrity of the scholarly record, the Science journals have partnered with Proofig AI image integrity software. Adoption of Proofig AI positions authors to resolve image-related issues before a paper is published. It also ensures the highest standards of accuracy in work published in the six Science family journals.  “Rigorous data are a cornerstone of our publications,” said Valda Vinson, Executive Editor of Science. “Image manipulation and duplication ...

Life consists of infinite possibilities — appearing in the real world as multiple choices, that then require decision-making in order to determine the best course of action. However, with every choice there also exists a certain amount of uncertainty or ‘risk’. Therefore, behind every decision, lies an intricate evaluation process that balances the ‘risks’ and ‘rewards’ associated with taking such actions. This can, in extreme cases, manifest itself as a pathological behavioral state of high risk-high return (HH) and low risk-low return (LL) decision processing that has been associated with gambling disorders. Although ...

The egg did come first. Egg-laying arose deep in evolutionary time, long before animals even made their way onto land. Throughout evolution, there have been many independent transitions to live-bearing across the animal kingdom, including insects, fish, reptiles, and mammals. Yet, these examples have taught us very little about the number of genetic changes it takes to go from eggs to live offspring. Now, an international team of researchers led by ISTA postdoc Sean Stankowski has used a humble marine snail to reveal the genetic changes that underpin the transition to live-bearing. The main advantage of investigating this phenomenon in ...

Global biodiversity data used to make major policy and conservation investment decisions reflect legacies of social and political inequities. In a Policy Forum, Melissa Chapman and colleagues highlight this issue and its implications for global conservation policy and planning. The rapid rise of global biodiversity data repositories like the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) – a data repository that synthesizes billions of species observations across the globe – has led to unprecedented insight into large-scale biodiversity patterns worldwide. Not only are ...

In a pair of studies, researchers use different approaches to investigate how complex and innovative phenotypic traits evolve in plants and animals. “The amazing breadth of plant and animal diversity across the globe has evolved by circuitous paths, and resolving the complex history of genomes and traits unlocks new depths for understanding evolution,” writes Kathryn Elmer in a related Perspective. Although biological traits are constantly changing in populations, the emergence of a trait ...

Microbiota-reactive T cells trigger colitis in mice harboring the microbiota of wild-caught mice following CTLA-4 blockade, according to a new study that reveals a major mechanism by which anti-CTLA-4 antibodies induce inflammatory toxicities during antitumor immune checkpoint inhibitor therapies. The findings could advance the development of next-generation CTLA-4 inhibitors that promote antitumor immune responses without triggering intestinal disease. Cancer immunotherapies with immune checkpoint inhibitors are widely used to promote antitumor immune responses in a range of human cancers. However, they can also lead to inflammatory ...

In an Editorial, Science Journals’ Editor-in-Chief, Holden Thorp, outlines changes to the publication’s editorial policies and practices for 2024, including plans to adopt the use of Proofig – an artificial intelligence-powered image-analysis tool – to detect altered images across all six of the Science family journals. Proofig is a tool that screens images for duplication and other types of manipulations. Although Science has been conducting “human-eye” image checks on some papers, the new tool will enhance Science’s review process and reduce ...

**Strictly embargoed until 19:00 GMT on Thursday 4 January 2024** Biologists uncover the secrets of evolutionary change Images available here   Big evolutionary changes happen gradually and not in giant leaps, a team of biologists led by the University of Sheffield have discovered   Using new methodology to study an evolutionary shift in the birthing style of marine snails, experts have been able to answer the long-debated question as to how game-changing innovations like flight, vision, and the bearing of live offspring happened   Understanding the evolutionary origin of these developments is important because ...

In an effort to reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction, retailers have implemented self-checkouts in stores across the country. They have become increasingly popular, but some brands like Walmart are removing self-checkouts in some locations while adding more in others. There are many advantages and disadvantages of self-checkout for both the customer and the retailer, but little formal research has investigated the impact of self-checkout on customers’ shopping experience. This led researchers from Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business to look at how self-checkout systems in grocery stores influence customer loyalty ...

Neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease affect more than 270 million people worldwide. AD is the leading cause of dementia, resulting in memory loss due to atrophy of neurons in the hippocampus, which is the part of the brain that regulates learning and memory. Nanoparticles designed to carry drugs have emerged as a strategy for treating different diseases, but in the context of neurodegenerative disease, much of the research has focused on developing strategies for getting nanoparticles across the blood brain barrier and into targeted regions of the brain.  In a new study, an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ...

Nanoparticles have become an essential part of medicine, from aiding in diagnostic tests to serving as immunotherapy agents and more. Thanks to their ultrasmall size — around the thickness of a strand of DNA — these particles are adept at getting inside tissues and targeting precise areas. Here are three recent papers published in ACS journals that could expand the beneficial uses for nanoparticles, based on results in rats. The technology could be used to improve contraceptive methods, burn creams and arthritis ...

Hispanic/Latina women with a history of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) – conditions marked by high blood pressure during pregnancy – are more likely to have abnormalities in their heart structure and function decades later when compared with women without a history of HDP, according to a National Institutes of Health-supported study. The findings, published in the journal Hypertension, also suggest that while having high blood pressure later in life can contribute to these abnormalities, HDP play the greater role, significantly raising a woman’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease.  “The ...

These “picosprings” have remarkably large and tuneable compliancy and can be controlled remotely through magnetic fields (even deep within the human body) allowing articulated motion in microrobots as well as micromanipulations well beyond the state of the art. Moreover, the extension of the picosprings can also be used visually to measure forces, for example propulsion or grasping forces, in interaction with other objects like cells. For example, these picosprings have been used to measure the locomotive propulsion force of sperm cells. The publication showcases these capabilities by demonstrating several ...

Folate is a B vitamin and a necessary nutrient to prevent neural tube defects, such as spina bifida. Folic acid, a synthetic form of folate, has been added to vitamins, breakfast cereals and other products in the U.S. and more than 80 other countries to ensure pregnant women get adequate amounts. However, new research suggests there may be such a thing as too much folic acid. In a study published in Communications Biology, a Nature publication, researchers from the UC Davis School of Medicine and the UC Davis MIND Institute showed that imbalances in folic acid and vitamin B12 can alter brain development in mice.  “There's no doubt the introduction ...

LA JOLLA, CA — Calibr, the drug discovery and development division of Scripps Research, today announced Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: GILD) has exercised its option to exclusively license the research institute’s investigational nucleoside reverse transcriptase translocation inhibitor (NRTTI) prodrug. The NRTTI prodrug, designated GS-1614, is a development candidate resulting from a collaboration between Scripps Research and Gilead aimed at advancing a best-in-class long-acting HIV regimen. Calibr ...