NEW YORK, November 2, 2023 — Harnessing and controlling light is vital for the development of technology, including energy harvesting, computation, communications, and biomedical sensing. Yet, in real-world scenarios, complexity in light's behavior poses challenges for its efficient control. Physicist Andrea Alù likens the behavior of light in chaotic systems to the initial break shot in a game of billiards. “In billiards, tiny variations in the way you launch the cue ball will lead to different patterns of the balls bouncing around the table,” said Alù, Einstein ...

It’s a multi-billion dollar question: What will happen to water as temperatures continue to rise? There will be winners and losers with any change that redistributes where, when and how much water is available for humans to drink and use. To find answers and make informed predictions, scientists look to the past. Reconstructions of past climate change using geologic data have helped to show the far-reaching influence of human activity on temperatures since the Industrial Age. But assembling hydroclimate records for the same timeframe has proved to be much harder. A study from the Past Global Changes (PAGES) Iso2k project team, ...

Metabolites called nucleotides are the building blocks of DNA and can impact cancer’s sensitivity or resistance to chemotherapy and radiation in brain cancer. Findings from researchers at the University of Michigan Health Rogel Cancer Center, published in Cancer Discovery, show how a specific nucleotide metabolite, called GTP, controls responses to radiation and chemotherapy in an unexpected way. “We learned that if you increase a cell’s GTP levels, it makes it really resistant to ...

The American Thyroid Association® (ATA®) is pleased to announce that Trevor E. Angell, MD has been selected as the new Editor-in-Chief of the ATA monthly journal Clinical Thyroidology®. Dr. Angell’s term as Editor-in-Chief will begin in January 2024. Clinical Thyroidology is one of the ATA’s official journals and is published in partnership with Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. This highly valued abstract and commentary publication provides a comprehensive look at clinical thyroid literature. Experts ...

Researchers at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center believe that some drugs already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or currently in clinical trials could be repurposed for certain breast cancer patients whose cancer has become resistant to standard therapies. Ozgur Sahin, Ph.D., a professor and SmartState Endowed Chair in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, led the research, which was published Nov. 2 in Nature Communications. The research, funded by an American Cancer Society Research Scholar Grant, started as an investigation into cancer resistance to the drug tamoxifen but expanded as the research questions led down new ...

It all began with basic research: While conducting laboratory experiments, a team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) came across an active agent against multidrug-resistant bacteria with a fundamental difference to antibiotics developed to date. The researchers have since established a start-up to develop a new drug based on this agent. The entrepreneurs have now been nominated for Science Breakthrough of the Year in the Science Start-Up category at the international Falling Walls summit. Rising numbers of bacteria are developing ...

Researchers report that 53% of European freestanding homes could have supplied all their own energy needs in 2020 using only local rooftop solar radiation, and this technical feasibility could increase to 75% in 2050. Publishing November 2 in the journal Joule, the study shows that there is no economic advantage for individual households to be fully self-sufficient under current or future conditions, though in some cases the costs are on par with remaining on-grid. The researchers estimate that self-sufficiency will be economically feasible for 5% (two million) of Europe’s 41 million freestanding single-family homes in 2050, ...

All-nighters can cause giddy and slap-happy feelings This effect is caused by increased dopamine release in distributed brain regions This dopamine signal also enhances plasticity in the neuronal connections, causing a potent antidepressant effect that lasts for days Study suggests that prefrontal cortex and its dopamine inputs are key for rapid plasticity and antidepressant effects after brief sleep loss EVANSTON, Ill. — Most people who have pulled an all-nighter are all too familiar with that “tired and wired” ...

Researchers from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and their collaborators have developed a gene therapy strategy to selectively manipulate Parkinson's disease-affected circuitry and attenuate the core motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease in rodent and nonhuman primate animals. The study was published in Cell on Nov. 2. Parkinson's disease, characterized by the loss of midbrain dopaminergic neurons, is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases in the elderly population, affecting more than 6 million people worldwide. Dopamine ...

Women who receive a false positive mammography result are more likely to develop breast cancer over the subsequent 20 years, report researchers from Karolinska Institutet in a study published in JAMA Oncology. The risk is highest for women aged between 60 and 75 and who have low breast density.  In global terms, breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among women, and screening is an important tool for catching women with a tumour at the earliest possible stage. In Sweden, all women between ...

About The Study: In this study of 274 midlife women, greater posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms were associated with higher carotid atherosclerosis and, among women who were APOEɛ4 carriers, greater brain small vessel disease and poorer cognitive performance. These findings point to the adverse implications of PTSD symptoms for cardiovascular and neurocognitive health among women in midlife, particularly for women who are APOEɛ4 carriers.  Authors: Rebecca C. Thurston, Ph.D., of the University of Pittsburgh, is the corresponding author.   To access the embargoed ...

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that the risk of developing breast cancer after a false-positive mammography result differs by individual characteristics and follow-up. These findings can be used to develop individualized risk-based breast cancer screening after a false-positive result.  Authors: Xinhe Mao, M.Sc., of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, 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/jamaoncol.2023.4519) Editor’s Note: Please ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Practicing mindfulness focused on healthy eating can be good for the heart, a new study shows, because it improves self-awareness and helps people stick to a heart-healthy diet. When people who had elevated blood pressure participated in an eight-week mindfulness-based blood pressure reduction program for the study, they significantly improved their scores on measures of self-awareness and adherence to a heart-healthy diet compared to a control group. The results were published in JAMA Network Open. “Participants ...

NEW ORLEANS, LA- Ochsner Health, the leading healthcare system in the Gulf South, and Infirmary Health, Alabama's largest private non-profit healthcare provider, are proud to announce a landmark partnership with Ochsner Accountable Care Network, a top-performing accountable care organization (ACO) in both clinical performance and healthcare savings for the Medicare population. The partnership aims to improve health outcomes for seniors across the Gulf Coast region. Infirmary Health's hospitals and acute care facilities are recognized as national leaders in innovative and compassionate care for ...

WASHINGTON — Researchers have developed a new optical coherence tomography (OCT) approach that can directly image coordination of tiny hair-like structures known as motile cilia in their natural environment. The ability to observe cilia dynamics in living organisms gives researchers a powerful new tool to investigate how these structures move cells and substances through the female reproductive system, as well as other functions of cilia throughout the body. “Our new method has the potential to answer the longstanding question about cilia's ...

Recycling is just as essential in cells as in our more familiar macroscopic world. Cells continuously generate waste products and accumulate damaged components while performing regular functions. Various recycling mechanisms have evolved to ensure efficient use of these resources and help maintain homeostasis, with autophagy being one of the most well-preserved among countless animal, plant, and fungal lineages. In the main form of autophagy, materials floating in the cell are transported to specialized organelles, such as lysosomes or vacuoles, within small capsule-like structures called ...

Mutations in the PIK3CA gene that lead to elevated production of the PI3Ka protein are among the most frequent alterations found in cancer, including in approximately 40% of hormone receptor–positive breast cancers. Alpelisib, the first drug targeting PI3Ka, was approved for use in the United States four years ago, but cancers with mutated PIK3CA eventually develop resistance to the medication. A team led by investigators at the Mass General Cancer Center, a member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, recently identified that resistance in some cases can be caused by secondary mutations in the PIK3CA gene itself. This leads ...

As the nearest celestial body to Earth, Moon’s space environment is distinctive to Earth’s mainly because of lack of a significant atmosphere/ionosphere and a global magnetic field. From a global perspective, solar wind can bombard its surface, and the solar wind materials cumulated in the soil record the evolution of the Solar System. Many small-scale remanent magnetic fields are scattered over the lunar surface and, just as planetary magnetic fields protect planets, they are believed to divert the incident solar wind and shield the local lunar surface beneath, thus producing ...

CLEVELAND—Case Western Reserve University has established an Institute for Glial Sciences to advance research of glial cells and their critical role in the health and diseases of the nervous systems, including multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, pediatric leukodystrophies, Autism spectrum disorders, Parkinson’s disease and cancer. Housed within the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine’s Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences, the new institute will be directed by Paul Tesar, the Dr. Donald and Ruth Weber Goodman Professor of Innovative ...

PITTSBURGH – November 2, 2023 – A vaginal film designed to slowly dissolve over the course of 30 days is being put to the test for the first time in a study launched this week that aims to determine its feasibility and acceptability as a potential HIV prevention method for women. The study, which is being conducted in the United States and Africa by MATRIX, a United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded project focused on the early research and development of innovative HIV prevention products for women, will help inform the final design of a monthly film containing the antiretroviral (ARV) ...

Recently, the tethered satellite system (TSS) has been used in Earth observations, space interferometry and other space missions, due to potential merits of TSS. The tethered TSAR (tomographic synthetic aperture radar) system is a group of tethered SAR satellites that can be rapidly deployed and provide a stable baseline for 3-dimensional topographic mapping and moving target detection. Successful deployment is critical for TSAR tethered system. Several control methods, including length, length rate, tension, and thrust-aided control, have been proposed over the years. Among them, adjusting tension is a viable yet challenging approach due to tether's strong nonlinearity and ...

Research out of Drexel University’s College of Engineering suggests that over the next two decades people living in the Schuylkill Watershed, which includes Philadelphia, could experience as many as 82 more days of water shortfalls due to localized weather impacts of climate change. The projections, which account for changes in population, land use, and climate, indicate that — due to more frequent extreme weather events associated with climate change — the watershed may only be able to meet demand about 67% of the time, a drop of 22% from its current reliability. Published in the journal Water, the paper ...

Researchers at National Jewish Health found that Indigenous coal miners may develop disabling black lung disease but are less likely to qualify for medical benefits using currently required lung function standards rather than standards specific to Indigenous populations.  Black lung (also called coal worker’s pneumoconiosis) is a debilitating respiratory illness that can occur several decades after a miner’s first exposure to coal mine dust. Disease severity can be influenced by adequacy of dust controls, medical surveillance programs ...

Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have received a $3.12 million National Institutes of Health grant to study whether acupuncture can alleviate chest pain caused by stable angina. Stable angina is defined as predictable chest pain during exertion or when under mental or emotional stress and is a condition that affects millions of Americans.  A large body of research has shown that acupuncture can help mitigate many types of chronic pain. But little is known about its effect on ischemic pain, which is caused when the heart isn’t getting enough oxygen, as is the case with stable angina.  The two-site study will be led by principal investigators Judith Schlaeger, ...

Washington, D.C.—A new study published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology, provides the first characterization of the coral microbiome under hypoxia, insufficient oxygen in the water. The research is an initial step toward identifying potential beneficial bacteria for corals facing this environmental stressor.  The researchers conducted the study because of the increasing awareness of the impact of the microbiome on host health. For example, a healthy human gut microbiome plays key roles ...