Kuala Lumpur, 1 November 2023 An Independent Expert Group (IEG) convened by the United Nations University’s International Institute for Global Health (UNU IIGH) has released a strong statement criticizing the wide and uncritical use of global university rankings. The IEG highlights the vital importance of universities in delivering not just education, training, and research, but also in shaping public policy, promoting informed public discourse, and helping advance democracy and human rights. However, although marketed as a tool for improving university performance and providing information to prospective students, the statement describes how global university ...

WASHINGTON—Women in low- and middle-income countries, especially in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, may be 10 times more likely to have obesity or heart health issues than their male counterparts, according to a large meta-analysis published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Obesity is a chronic disease characterized by an individual having an excess of body fat or abnormal fat accumulation. People who have obesity are at an increased risk for other serious ...

The American Pediatric Society (APS) is pleased to announce Alan Jobe, MD, PhD, as the 2024 APS John Howland Award recipient, the highest honor bestowed by the APS. The prestigious award signifies the society’s recognition of Dr. Jobe for his significant contributions to advancing child health and the profession of pediatrics. The award will be presented to Dr. Jobe during the APS Presidential Plenary at the Pediatric Academic Societies 2024 Meeting in Toronto, Ontario, May 2 – May 6.                                               The ...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Regenstrief Institute research scientist Matthew J. Bair, M.D., M.S., and the Indiana Institute of Medical Research (IIMR) at Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center have been awarded the Creative Forces®: National Endowment for the Arts Military Healing Arts Network Award for Clinical Study of Music Therapy and Chronic Pain in U.S. Veterans. The research project titled “Stepped-Care Intervention of Music and Imagery to Assess Relief (SCIMITAR) Trial” will test whether a two-step music therapy intervention ...

Researchers at the World Institute of Kimchi have isolated lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains with high levels of resistance to phages from kimchi fermented at low temperatures for a long period of time. They have also identified the defense mechanism of the LAB strains against phages, viruses that infect and replicate within bacteria. Kimchi, a traditional Korean food, is a lactic acid-fermented vegetable product. Unlike fermented dairy products, which are produced under a sterilized-closed fermentation system, kimchi is produced through spontaneous fermentation initiated by various microorganisms present in the raw materials under a non-sterilized-open fermentation system. Thus, ...

For some, the eyes are a window into the soul. But for Jayashree Kalpathy-Cramer, PhD, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, they're a window into human health. The researcher was granted $300,000 by The Michael J. Fox Foundation this fall to analyze clinical data curated at the Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Eye Center using artificial intelligence (AI) in an effort to identify biomarkers of Parkinson’s disease, a progressive disorder that affects the nervous system and causes uncontrollable movements, such as shaking, throughout the body.  “This approach could be impactful ...

Fidel Santamaria, a professor in the UTSA College of Sciences’ neuroscience, developmental and regenerative biology department, received a $2 million grant through the National Science Foundation’s Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI) program to develop new artificial intelligence (AI) applications in the most energy-efficient manner yet. For machine-learning tools to analyze new data, they must first sort data into various categories. For example, if a tool is sorting photos by color, then it needs to recognize which photos are red, yellow or blue to accurately classify them. While this is an easy chore for a human, the task presents a ...

Researchers from Boston University published a Journal of Marketing study showing that tapping into consumers’ sense of ownership prompts them to place a higher value on products from a circular economy. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled “Affording Disposal Control: The Effect of Circular Take-Back Programs on Psychological Ownership and Valuation” and is authored by Anna Tari and Remi Trudel.  Governments worldwide view a circular economy as part of the solution to the climate crisis. In the U.S., several states such as California, Connecticut, Maine, Oregon, and ...

Mountains of used plastic bottles get thrown away every day, but microbes could potentially tackle this problem. Now, researchers in ACS Central Science report that they’ve developed a plastic-eating E. coli that can efficiently turn polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste into adipic acid, which is used to make nylon materials, drugs and fragrances. Previously, a team of researchers including Stephen Wallace engineered a strain of E. coli to transform the main component in old PET bottles, terephthalic acid, into something tastier and ...

Young patients from the Middle East and Gulf region presenting with acute coronary syndrome have a greater prevalence of risk factors, including smoking and high cholesterol compared to older patients also presenting with first acute coronary syndrome. The study, presented at the American College of Cardiology Middle East & Eastern Mediterranean 2023 conference, found these patients still had similar outcomes compared to older patients. Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) describes a variety of cardiovascular conditions related to sudden reduction in blood flow to the heart, including heart attack and unstable angina ...

There’s a tried and proven pathway to reducing racial disparities in cancer in Delaware. It worked with colon cancer 10 years ago and should now be applied to the incidence of breast cancer in the state. That's the recommendation of clinicians, program leaders and researchers from the ChristianaCare Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute in a new commentary published in Population Health Management on Nov. 1, 2023.  The commentary — "Reducing Racial Disparities in Breast Cancer: Getting the ...

Those at risk for Type 2 diabetes may already know to avoid sugar, but new research suggests they may want to skip the salt as well. A new study from Tulane University published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings found that frequently adding salt to foods was associated with an increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. The study surveyed more than 400,000 adults registered in the UK Biobank about their salt intake. Over a median of 11.8 years of follow-up, more than 13,000 cases of Type 2 diabetes developed among participants. Compared ...

DALLAS, November 1, 2023 — Health outcomes research has shown that workers in the U.S. experience inequitable health and well-being, with significant variations in the burden of chronic disease, mental health conditions, food insecurity and more across populations, even among those covered by employer-sponsored insurance.[1], [2] Recent studies demonstrate how the workplace can serve as a social driver of health, impacting the risk of conditions such as high blood pressure and heart disease.[3], [4] This growing ...

For the first time, a physical neural network has successfully been shown to learn and remember ‘on the fly’, in a way inspired by and similar to how the brain’s neurons work. The result opens a pathway for developing efficient and low-energy machine intelligence for more complex, real-world learning and memory tasks. Published today in Nature Communications, the research is a collaboration between scientists at the University of Sydney and University of California at Los Angeles. Lead ...

PULLMAN, Wash. – A susceptibility to gain weight may be written into molecular processes of human cells, a Washington State University study indicates. The proof-of-concept study with a set of 22 twins found an epigenetic signature in buccal or cheek cells appearing only for the twins who were obese compared to their thinner siblings. With more research, the findings could lead to a simple cheek swab test for an obesity biomarker and enable earlier prevention methods for a condition that effects 50% of U.S. adults, the researchers said. “Obesity appears to be more complex than simple consumption of food. Our work indicates there’s a susceptibility for this disease ...

Does electromagnetic radiation emitted by mobile phones affect semen quality? While various environmental and lifestyle factors have been proposed to explain the decline in semen quality observed over the last fifty years, the role of mobile phones has yet to be demonstrated. A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), in collaboration with the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), has published a major cross-sectional study on the subject. It shows that frequent use of mobile phones is associated with a lower sperm concentration and total sperm count. However, researchers did not ...

According to a new paper in Rheumatology, published by Oxford University Press, JAK inhibitors, which doctors have used to treat patients with arthritis despite concerns about the effectiveness of such drugs, actually do work quite well. In a multicenter, retrospective study Japanese researchers found that the drugs resulted in impressive remission rates in patients, most of whom choose to continue such treatment. Rheumatoid arthritis is a common autoimmune disease characterized by chronic inflammation of joint linings and results in progressive joint destruction and other systemic ...

While the role of mothers’ stress, anxiety and depression on children’s behavioral and cognitive development is well established, less is known about the connection between fathers’ mental health and children’s development. Now, a team of researchers affiliated to different institutions across Quebec, Canada has examined if paternal anxious and depressive symptoms, measured during their partner’s pregnancy, and again six to eight years later, are associated with children’s cognitive function and behavior. They studied this association ...

A cancer drug currently in the final stages of clinical trials could offer hope for the treatment of a wide range of inflammatory diseases, including gout, heart failure, cardiomyopathy, and atrial fibrillation, say scientists at the University of Cambridge. In a study published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the researchers have identified a molecule that plays a key role in triggering inflammation in response to materials in the body seen as potentially harmful. We are born with a defence system known as innate immunity, which acts as the first line of defence against harmful materials in the body. Some of these materials will come from outside, such as bacterial or viral ...

Imagine the body’s cells are well-behaved students in the classroom. The “teachers” are tumor suppressor genes, and they make sure cells follow the rules. But when tumor suppressor genes are away, cells may go astray. With cells, this is a serious matter. Unregulated behavior can lead to uncontrolled growth and, ultimately, the development of cancer. In an invited review article Wednesday (Nov. 1, 2023) in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, Kathleen Mulvaney, assistant professor with the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, talks about the ...

The oxygen content of seawater has a profound impact on the cycling of bioessential elements and the habitability of Earth. But how and why the marine oxygen landscape (i.e., the spatial pattern of oxygen levels) evolved since the start of the Phanerozoic 538 million years ago is not well established. To tackle this problem, researchers led by Prof. WANG Xiangli from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS) and Prof. LI Chao from the Chengdu University of Technology, along with collaborators from the University of Cincinnati and the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, have reconstructed a nearly continuous record of ...

uIf your boss stomps and yells, criticizes you, and then proceeds to take the credit for your work – even it is an isolated incident – it can take a profound toll on employee well-being and performance. But despite the many years of research, the precise mechanisms through which bad leadership impacts employees’ performance remain a subject of interest. In a new study, first published online Oct. 30 in Group & Organization Management, an international group of researchers, led by Stevens Institute of Technology and University of Illinois Chicago, offer a novel explanation of the cognitive factors through which abusive ...

A research team led by Cleveland Clinic and Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) has developed a new method for mapping how the parts of the brain "speak" to each other, critical to understanding behavior changes in patients with neurological disease. Diseases like Alzheimer's disease change how patients communicate and act, affecting their relationships and well-being. Cleveland Clinic's Hod Dana, PhD, is collaborating with Jacob Raber, PhD, an OHSU behavioral neuroscientist, on ...

UTA will soon add a new piece of cutting-edge equipment to its already impressive and growing research armamentarium—a type of super-resolution microscope (SRM) that allows biologists to see structures within a cell in even finer detail. The SRM will come to UTA because of additional grant funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to the lab of Piya Ghose, an assistant professor of biology at UTA. This nearly $250,000 award supplements Ghose’s existing NIH/National Institute of General Medical ...

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Domestic violence went down or stayed the same during the first 10 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in five major U.S. cities. However, domestic violence involving firearms increased in three of those cities, according to a new UC Davis study published in the Journal of Family Violence. “The increase in firearm domestic violence is concerning, as abuser firearm access is a risk factor for lethality,” said Elizabeth Tomsich, a research data analyst at the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Center and ...