An existing drug that targets senescent, or sleeping cells could provide the answer to treating lower back pain, according to a new study. The research, published today as a Reviewed Preprint in eLife, advances our understanding of the role of senescent osteoclasts – cells that break down and remove damaged bone tissue – in the development of lower back pain, which affects 8 in 10 people at some point in their lives. eLife’s editors say the study provides compelling evidence that an existing drug, Navitoclax, can eliminate senescent osteoclasts in mice and, in doing so, markedly reduce spinal pain.  Osteoclasts resorb ...

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (Nov. 14, 2023) — A first-of-its-kind study has identified overactive inflammation and loss of critical protection mechanisms in the brain as potential contributors to suicide risk. The findings support further exploration of anti-inflammatory medications to reduce risk, especially in situations where suicidal ideation can be ascertained early. The study was published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry and led by Van Andel Institute’s Lena Brundin, M.D., Ph.D., Columbia ...

An international team has for the first time researched the longevity of neutralizing antibodies in HIV-1-infected people. Currently, it is assumed that an HIV-1 vaccine can only be effective if it produces these antibodies in vaccinated humans. The findings improve understanding of the dynamics of such antibodies and are an important building block for further research into an HIV-1 vaccine. Professor Dr Florian Klein, Director of the Institute of Virology at the University Hospital Cologne, and Dr Dr Philipp Schommers, Head of the Laboratory for Antiviral Immunity at Department ...

Language has the power to shape our perceptions and interactions with the world. Different languages can coexist, but their dynamics are shaped by the communities that speak them – and how those communities interact with each other. Shared beliefs, assumptions, and feelings toward specific language forms often determine whether a specific language will survive or disappear, especially within multilinguistic societies. In Chaos, by AIP Publishing, researchers from the University of the Balearic Islands in Spain incorporate language ideologies, along with the impact of interaction between individuals with opposing preferences, on the language shift process. “Our ...

Distributed cloud storage is a hot topic for security researchers around the globe pursuing secure data storage, and a team in China is now merging quantum physics with mature cryptography and storage techniques to achieve a cost-effective cloud storage solution. Shamir’s secret sharing, a known method, is a key distribution algorithm. It involves distributing private information to a group so that “the secret” can be revealed only when a majority pools their knowledge. It’s common to combine quantum key distribution (QKD) and Shamir’s secret sharing algorithm for secure ...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14, 2023 – The risk of hearing loss does not come just from loud machinery or other obvious noise. It can also affect people in public environments like theaters and concert halls. Absorbing this excess sound to make public environments safer for hearing and using the unwanted sound waves to create electricity is the aim of a paper published this week in Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing. “According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 12.5% of children and adolescents aged 6-19 years and 17% of adults aged 20-69 years have suffered permanent ...

About The Study: This study of 139,000 respiratory hospitalizations in Canada of children younger than age 18 found a substantial decrease in severe respiratory disease resulting in hospitalizations, intensive care unit admissions, and mortality during the first two years of the pandemic compared with the three pre-pandemic years. These findings suggest that future evaluations of the effect of public health interventions aimed at reducing circulating respiratory pathogens during non-pandemic periods of increased respiratory illness may be warranted. Authors: Eyal Cohen, M.D., M.Sc., of ...

About The Study: In this study where the majority of 54,000 participants were African American with low socioeconomic status, diabetes was associated with elevated colorectal cancer (CRC) risk, suggesting that diabetes prevention and control may reduce CRC disparities. The association was attenuated for those who completed colonoscopies, highlighting how adverse effects of diabetes-related metabolic dysregulation may be disrupted by preventative screening. Authors: Shaneda Warren Andersen, Ph.D., of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.43333) Editor’s ...

Professor Dr. Lisa Sauermann from Bonn has received this year’s von Kaven Award from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) in recognition of her research achievements in the field of extremal combinatorics. The award goes to mathematicians who conduct research under the DFG’s Heisenberg or Emmy Noether Programmes. Endowed with €10,000, this year’s award will be presented on 17 November in connection with the Gauss Lectureship of the German Mathematical Society (Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung, DMV) in Berlin. The laudatory speech will be given by mathematician Professor Dr. Katrin ...

In the eighth annual The State of Open Data report released today, almost three quarters of surveyed researchers overwhelmingly said they are still not getting the support they need to share their data openly. Such data highlights the increased need for greater community collaboration and tools to support researchers in the move to sustainable open science practices. For the remaining 23% of respondents who had sought and received support with data sharing, the support primarily came from internal sources (colleague/supervisor – 61%), followed by institutional libraries (31%), research office ...

“Of course, opinions on distributional justice differ a lot. However, even if one only slightly dislikes the idea of unequal distribution of wealth, using taxes on land rent is a really good choice for government policy. Taxing land while reducing capital taxes can enhance welfare and at the same time increase economic efficiency and sustainability”, says Ottmar Edenhofer, coauthor and Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) as well as of the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change. The authors of the study examined how governments can use the “portfolio effect” to reduce wealth ...

(Boston)—Julie Palmer, ScD, co-director of the Boston University-Boston Medical Center (BU-BMC) Cancer Center, has been awarded a one-year, $589,000 Research Grant from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) for her research, “Breast Cancer Drivers in Black Women: Society to Cells.”   The goal of the project is to reduce breast cancer disparities and improve outcomes among Black women by advancing personalized, evidence-based care. Ultimately, over a five-year period, a comprehensive study of the interaction of comorbidities, social determinants ...

As the world’s leading integrated solutions provider of precision medicine, BGI Genomics has always been committed to promoting the development of life sciences and contributing to global human health. During the battle against COVID-19, BGI Genomics spared no effort to cooperate with the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the Saudi Ministry of Health and other organizations, providing concrete support to the Saudi people to control and prevent spread of Covid 19. Against the backdrop of past collaboration, ...

A machine learning-based weather forecasting model from Google DeepMind leads to better, faster, and more accessible 10-day weather predictions than existing approaches, according to a new study. The model, dubbed "GraphCast," outperformed traditional systems in 90% of tested cases. It also performed well in predictions related to extreme events, for which it was not directly trained. "We believe this marks a turning point in weather forecasting," write the authors. The gold-standard approach for weather ...

INDIANAPOLIS — With the number of Americans living with dementia expected to more than double to 13.8 million by 2060, two Regenstrief Institute research scientists and Indiana University professors have created an app to ease the burden on caregivers. In 2021, more than 11 million family members or other unpaid, informal caregivers provided nearly 16 billion hours of care to people with dementia. Globally, approximately 50 million people are affected by this neurocognitive disorder. Richard Holden, PhD, M.S., and Malaz Boustani, M.D., MPH, have created and real-world tested the evidence-based Brain CareNotes. This easy-to-use app will ...

Enzymes, essential for normal cellular and physiological functions, are implicated in various diseases like cancer and diabetes due to their abnormal activity. Therefore, tracking enzyme activity is a valuable strategy for the diagnosis and monitoring of diseases. Conventional imaging techniques are limited by the need for contrast agents, low sensitivity, and spatio-temporal resolution. To overcome these limitations, researchers are increasingly investigating fluorescent probes for non-invasive and real-time visualization of enzyme dynamics and corresponding disease status. In a new review article, researchers from Korea have summarized the latest advancements ...

For the past few decades, physicists and materials scientists around the world have been busy developing computer codes that simulate the key properties of materials, and they can now choose from a whole family of such tools, using them to publish tens of thousands of scientific articles per year. These codes are typically based on density-functional theory (DFT), a modelling method that uses several approximations to reduce the otherwise mind-boggling complexity of calculating the behavior of each individual electron according to the laws of quantum mechanics. The ...

Collaboration between the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) and Taylor & Francis (T&F) to make more books in Education open access catapulted readership six-fold in the partnership’s first year. The NCME Applications of Educational Measurement and Assessment series, available here, provides definitive research, theory, and applied insights in educational measurement, assessment, testing, and psychometrics. Topics addressed include validation, fairness, accountability, technology, natural language processing, and beyond. Ten edited volumes have been published since the partnership between NCME and T&F commenced in 2011, and the ...

WASHINGTON, DC (November 14, 2023)—The Kissick Family Foundation Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) Grant Program, in partnership with the Milken Institute, launched its first-ever request for funding proposals today. Up to $2.5 million in total funding will be made available to researchers from around the world whose work aims to increase scientific understanding of FTD. The program is accepting applications for two-year research projects and intends to award three to five grants to doctorate-level ...

In 2021, 61.2 million Americans ages 12 and older used illicit drugs and more than 106,000 died from drug-involved overuse. Florida ranks second to California, with 5,300 annual overdose deaths, outpacing the national average by about 23 percent. Excessive alcohol use is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States and is associated with numerous health issues, including heart disease, cancer and poor mental health. Although individuals with substance use disorder use outpatient sober support services and resources, relapse rates are still as high as 70 percent, indicating a need for more treatment modalities.  A new Florida Atlantic ...

Images  A new breed of semiconductors that could enable breakthroughs in solar cells and LEDs will benefit from cutting-edge manufacturing approaches, through a new project led by the University of Michigan.    Backed by $3 million from the National Science Foundation, it includes partners at the University of California San Diego.   The effort combines hands-on work that improves upon the process of layer-by-layer deposition of semiconductor materials during production with an information-sharing ...

Mount Sinai’s Cardiovascular Research Institute is sending bioengineered human heart muscle cells and micro-tissues into space for the first time on NASA’s 29th SpaceX commercial resupply services mission, which launched Thursday, November 9. The “SpaceX CRS-29” mission is sending scientific research to the International Space Station (ISS), where the samples will stay for approximately 30 days before returning to Earth. Through this experiment, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai researchers aim to gain a better understanding of how cardiac muscle cells, or cardiomyocytes, adapt to extreme biological stresses, and how microgravity and other features of ...

Two papers describe the genetic basis of long-term heat tolerance in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, with implications for crop breeding. Teruaki Taji and colleagues evaluated dozens of lines of the model mustard weed for both long term (37 °C for 36 days) and short term (42°C for 50 minutes) heat stress. The authors found considerable variation within the species, but little overlap between responses to the two different heat challenges, suggesting that long-term heat stress tolerance is controlled by different cellular mechanisms than the more commonly studied short-term heat stress. Chromosomal mapping using the F2 progeny of a cross between a long-term-heat ...

Three out of every four older adults say they have experienced a fraud attempt by phone, text, email, mail or online in the last two years, a new poll shows. Three in ten say they’ve been victims of at least one scam. The poll reveals an especially strong link between an older adult’s health and their vulnerability to scams – both being able to spot one and becoming the victim of one. Across the board, people aged 50 to 80 who reported being in fair or poor physical or mental health, those with disabilities, and those who rate their memory as fair or poor were more likely than others their age to say they’d experienced ...

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Nov. 14, 2023 — An innovative approach to artificial intelligence (AI) enables reconstructing a broad field of data, such as overall ocean temperature, from a small number of field-deployable sensors using low-powered “edge” computing, with broad applications across industry, science and medicine. “We developed a neural network that allows us to represent a large system in a very compact way,” said Javier Santos, a Los Alamos National Laboratory researcher who applies ...