It feels like a classical paradox: How do you see the invisible? But for modern astronomers, it is a very real challenge: How do you measure dark matter, which by definition emits no light? The answer: You see how it impacts things that you can see. In the case of dark matter, astronomers watch how light from distant galaxies bends around it. An international team of astrophysicists and cosmologists have spent the past year teasing out the secrets of this elusive material, using sophisticated computer simulations and the observations from the one of the most powerful astronomical cameras in the world, the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC). The team is led by astronomers from Princeton ...

People with autism spectrum disorder can be classified into four distinct subtypes based on their brain activity and behavior, according to a study from Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The study, published March 9 in Nature Neuroscience, leveraged machine learning to analyze newly available neuroimaging data from 299 people with autism and 907 neurotypical people. They found patterns of brain connections linked with behavioral traits in people with autism, such as verbal ability, social affect, and repetitive or stereotypic behaviors. They confirmed that the four autism subgroups could also be replicated in a separate dataset ...

“[...] DPE analysis may have an important role in improving the diagnosis and management of CRC.” BUFFALO, NY- April 7, 2023 – A new editorial paper was published in Oncoscience (Volume 10) on March 23, 2023, entitled, “New method of clustering colorectal cancer patients using differential presence of exons (DPE) sequencing.” Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a heterogeneous disease that occurs in the colon and the rectum, parts of the gastrointestinal system. CRC is the third leading cause of cancer-related ...

Breast cancer is the most common cancer to affect women worldwide. According to the American Cancer Society, about 1 in 8 women in the United States will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. While it is not possible to entirely prevent breast cancer, various medical organizations advise regular screening to detect and treat cases at the early stage. The breast density, defined as the proportion of fibro-glandular tissue within the breast, is often used to assess the risk of developing breast cancer. While various methods are available to estimate this measure, studies have shown that subjective assessments conducted by radiologists based on visual analogue scales ...

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people who experienced intimate partner violence in their current relationship before COVID-19 had an increase in the frequency of victimization after the pandemic began, according to a Rutgers study.   While national emergencies, crises and pandemics increase the frequency of health risks and intimate partner violence few studies have considered the nuances of social and psychological factors, such as socioeconomic characteristics and mental health, in explaining the increase in intimate partner violence during times of crisis.   “To date, most programs on intimate ...

Irvine, Calif., April 7, 2023 — Human activities emit many kinds of pollutants into the air, and without a molecule called hydroxide (OH), many of these pollutants would keep aggregating in the atmosphere. How OH itself forms in the atmosphere was viewed as a complete story, but in new research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a research team that includes Sergey Nizkorodov, a University of California, Irvine professor of chemistry, report that a strong electric field that exists at the surface between airborne water droplets and ...

The explosion of a star is a dramatic event, but the remains the star leaves behind can be even more dramatic. A new mid-infrared image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope provides one stunning example. It shows the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A), created by a stellar explosion seen from Earth 340 years ago. Cas A is the youngest known remnant from an exploding, massive star in our galaxy, which makes it a unique opportunity to learn more about how such supernovae occur.   “Cas ...

If you know the atoms that compose a particular molecule or solid material, the interactions between those atoms can be determined computationally, by solving quantum mechanical equations — at least, if the molecule is small and simple. However, solving these equations, critical for fields from materials engineering to drug design, requires a prohibitively long computational time for complex molecules and materials. Now, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago’s ...

On January 6, 2021, the public watched in disbelief as the Capitol building was stormed by hundreds of protestors. Most spectators at home didn't know violence at the Capitol building was already circulating through far-right social media channels for months.  Social media, for better or worse, play a large role in how we consume information – as well as spreading misinformation and conspiratorial propaganda.   Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh received $100,000 as part of the Meta Foundational Integrity Research ...

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — April 7, 2023 — A trio of premier Southwest biomedical research centers — HonorHealth Research Institute, City of Hope and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), part of City of Hope — have developed a more precise method that may help determine when it is best to surgically remove of pancreatic cancer tumors. Surgical removal of the tumor can be a key step in helping extend the survival of patients with pancreatic cancer, one of the most aggressive and deadly of all malignancies and the nation’s third leading cause of cancer-related death. Currently, surgery — or surgery plus  chemotherapy ...

Philadelphia, April 7, 2022—A regulatory class of human T cells descends from two different origins, one that relates to autoimmunity and one that relates to protective immunity, according to a new study led by Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The findings, published today in Science Immunology, could pave the way for new treatments for autoimmune diseases that target the immune system selectively. “When it comes to autoimmunity, the prevailing wisdom has been that the only way to stop inflammation ...

Researchers have spotted how specific proteins within the chromosomes of roundworms enable their offspring to produce specialized cells generations later, a startling finding that upends classical thinking that hereditary information for cell differentiation is mostly ingrained within DNA and other genetic factors. The Johns Hopkins University team reports for the first time the mechanisms by which a protein known as histone H3 controls when and how worm embryos produce both highly specific cells and pluripotent cells, cells that can turn certain genes on ...

A team of scientists at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) has identified a stress-regulated gene that plays a role in the link between long-term stress and a common type of depressive behavior in mice. Specifically, this gene was needed for long-term stress to produce a loss of interest in activities that were once rewarding or pleasurable – often called anhedonia. However, the gene did not play a role in other common depressive-like symptoms, such as social avoidance and increased anxiety-like behavior. The team reported its findings recently in eLife. The study was led by neuroscientists Makoto Taniguchi, Ph.D., and Christopher Cowan, Ph.D., and also ...

Common wisdom suggests that a core difference between solitude and loneliness is choice. Whereas a person who appreciates solitude might choose to enjoy a quiet night in or a solo trip abroad, a lonely person may feel disconnected from other people even in a crowded room. New research published in Psychological Science supports this notion, suggesting that lonely people may think differently regardless of the size of their social networks.  “We found that lonely individuals are exceptionally dissimilar to their peers in the way that they process the world around them … ...

Context and Background Teaching has historically been a licensed profession in which a limited number of schools of education were typically housed in universities and offered a traditional path to certification (Kleiner, 2000). However, 30 years of documented teacher shortages in the United States resulted in federal and state policies that reduce barriers to teacher licensure (Cross, 2017). The goal of these policies is to create a larger pool of new teachers in less time than it typically takes schools of education to produce ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD, describes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, two chronic diseases that cause inflammation in the intestines. IBD, which affects about 3 million adults in the United States, is an autoimmune disorder — a condition in which the body’s immune system attacks healthy tissues. Its symptoms include diarrhea, rectal bleeding, fatigue, weight loss, and stomach cramps. The intestinal epithelium, made up of a layer of cells that lines the intestine, plays an important role in IBD because it can be easily disrupted during gut inflammation. A specialized ...

Alagille syndrome, a genetic disease estimated to affect 1 in 30,000 individuals, is caused by mutations in the gene JAG1 in most cases. The mutations affect multiple organs including the liver where it often results in cholestasis, a condition in which the flow of bile from the liver stops or slows, leading to bile buildup that in time causes liver damage. Current treatments focus on delaying disease progression; the only cure for liver disease in Alagille syndrome is liver transplantation. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and collaborating institutions have discovered a strategy that prevents liver damage in animal ...

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive blood cancer that causes uncontrolled accumulation of white blood cells. Because of the poor outcomes of this disease, researchers across the globe have been on the hunt for new ways to treat AML, while preserving normal blood development. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and collaborating institutions report in the journal Cancer Research a new vulnerability of this cancer that can be targeted with a class of experimental drugs. These drugs target a protein complex called SWI/SNF, which many cells use to make DNA more open and accessible. ...

East Hanover, NJ – April, 7 2023 – People with disabilities maintained their record labor force participation rate in March, continuing to outperform people without disabilities, according to today’s National Trends in Disability Employment – semi-monthly update (nTIDE), issued by Kessler Foundation and the University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability (UNH-IOD). Year-to-year, people with and without disabilities showed gains in employment, reflecting the economy’s ongoing recovery from the effects of the COVID-19 ...

A team led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Scripps Research and the University of Chicago has identified an antibody that appears to block infection by all dominant variants of the virus that causes COVID-19, including Omicron, the most recent. Their discovery could lead to more potent vaccines and new antibody-based treatments.  In a study published March 6 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, senior author Dr. Patrick Wilson, the Anne E. Dyson Professor of Pediatric Research and a member of the Gale and Ira ...

April 7, 2023 – For patients with advanced bladder cancer who are medically unfit for standard treatment, a new intravesical (inside the bladder) chemotherapy delivery system called TAR-200 is safe and shows initial evidence of effectiveness, reports a study in the May issue of The Journal of Urology®, an Official Journal of the American Urological Association (AUA). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer. TAR-200 is a drug-device combination product that is inserted into the bladder and provides continuous, low-dose, local delivery of chemotherapy. "Our preliminary clinical trial found that TAR-200 was generally safe, well tolerated, and had ...

A NASA instrument to provide unprecedented resolution of monitoring major air pollutants – down to four square miles – lifted off on its way to geostationary orbit at 12:30 a.m. EDT Friday. The Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument will improve life on Earth by revolutionizing the way scientists observe air quality from space.   "The TEMPO mission is about more than just studying pollution – it's about improving life on Earth for all. By monitoring the effects of everything from rush-hour traffic to pollution from forest fires and volcanoes, NASA data will help improve air quality across North America and protect ...

PHILADELPHIA – The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) today announced its newly elected class of Fellows of the AACR Academy. The mission of the AACR Academy is to recognize and honor distinguished scientists whose scientific contributions have propelled significant innovation and progress against cancer. Fellows of the AACR Academy serve as a global brain trust of top contributors to cancer science and medicine who help advance the mission of the AACR to prevent and cure all cancers through research, education, communication, collaboration, science policy and advocacy, and funding for cancer research. All Fellows are nominated and elected ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new look at decades of data from museum collections and surveys of leaf-litter ants in Florida reveals a steady decline in native ants and simultaneous increase in nonnative ants – even in protected natural areas of the state, researchers report. The study tracked leaf-litter ant abundance from 1965 to 2019. Nonnative ants represented 30% of the 177 ground-dwelling species detected in surveys across the state in later years, the team reports. Their dominance grew most notably in southern Florida, where ...

A team of researchers compared the genomes of woolly mammoths with modern day elephants to find out what made woolly mammoths unique, both as individuals and as a species. The investigators report April 7 in the journal Current Biology that many of the woolly mammoth’s trademark features—including their woolly coats and large fat deposits—were already genetically encoded in the earliest woolly mammoths, but these and other traits became more defined over the species’ 700,000+ year existence. They also identified a gene with several mutations that may have been ...