Of all the mammals, bats have one of the poorest fossil records, with palaeontologists estimating that about 80 per cent of it is missing. This has made it difficult to pinpoint exactly when they first began to fly, or began roosting in caves, or developed their unique way of ‘seeing’ their surroundings in the dark using sound – called echolocation. But a near-perfectly preserved bat’s skull discovered by French palaeontologists in a cave that dates back about 50 million years has shed new light on what we thought we knew about this ancient, ...

Many aquifers in California and around the world are being drained of their groundwater because of the combined impacts of excess pumping, shifts in land use, and climate change. However, a new study by scientists at UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley, published on Oct. 18 in Nature Water, may offer a solution. It describes the development and operation of a novel incentive program that uses water rebates to pay for some of the costs of getting stormwater runoff into the ground. The program is called recharge net metering (ReNeM). Although ...

In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a time-intensive and often stress-inducing fertility procedure. Yet how does that stress impact its success? Investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, assessed the effects of anxiety and depression in men on fertility and IVF outcomes. Their findings reveal no correlation between anxiety, regardless of antidepressant use, on IVF outcomes or live birth rate. Results are published in Human Reproduction. “Our findings indicate that despite past concerns over antidepressant medication’s ...

Niigata, Japan - A new Japanese ecological study revealed that prefecture-specific participation rates for Specific Health Checkups (SHC participation rates) had significant negative effects on prefecture-specific standardized incidence rates (SIRs) of treated ESKD and prefecture-specific prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD). The findings support the importance of increasing SHC participation rates at the population level and encouraging people to undergo regular health checkups. "Japan has one of the highest incidence and ...

A 2000-year-old practice by Chinese herbalists – examining the human tongue for signs of disease – is now being embraced by computer scientists using machine learning and artificial intelligence. Tongue diagnostic systems are fast gaining traction due to an increase in remote health monitoring worldwide, and a study by Iraqi and Australian researchers provides more evidence of the increasing accuracy of this technology to detect disease. Engineers from Middle Technical University (MTU) in Baghdad and the University of South Australia (UniSA) used a USB web camera and computer to capture tongue ...

NYU leadership - including recently inaugurated President Linda Mills and NYU Tandon School of Engineering Dean Jelena Kovačević - joined University faculty and partners on October 18th to cut the ribbon at the newly-minted NYU Nanofabrication (NanoFab) Cleanroom, a specialized research environment in which scientists and engineers can fabricate cutting-edge semiconductor chips to advance research on quantum science and engineering, precision medicine, neurotechnologies, next-generation communications technology and secure computing.  Located on NYU Tandon’s ...

Two widely used statins, rosuvastatin and atorvastatin, are equally effective at preventing heart attacks, strokes and death in people with coronary artery disease. But while rosuvastatin treatment is associated with lower cholesterol levels, it also carries a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes than atorvastatin, finds a study published by The BMJ today.  Lowering “bad” (LDL) cholesterol levels with statins is recommended for people with coronary artery disease - a condition where the blood vessels supplying the heart are ...

Surgery to straighten a crooked septum (the thin wall of bone and cartilage dividing the space between the two nostrils) is more effective than nasal sprays, and should be offered to adults with at least moderate symptoms such as breathing disruption, suggests a UK trial published by The BMJ today. A crooked (deviated) septum often means that one nasal passage is narrower than the other, making it feel blocked, which can affect breathing, sleep or exercising. Surgery to correct this (septoplasty) is a common operation. In 2019-20, 16,700 septoplasties were carried ...

  Biodegradable plastics may not be the solution to plastic pollution many hoped for, with a University of Otago study showing they are still harmful to fish.   Petroleum-derived microplastics are known to impact marine life, but little is known about the impact of biodegradable alternatives.   The study, published in Science of the Total Environment and funded by a University of Otago Research Grant, is the first to assess the impact petroleum-derived plastic and biodegradable plastic have on wild fish.   Lead author Ashleigh Hawke, who completed a Master of Science in Otago’s Department of Marine Science, ...

The fusion of artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled technologies and precision oncology is advancing at an unprecedented pace, and the introduction of the new peer-reviewed journal, AI in Precision Oncology, will support clinicians, researchers, AI experts, patients, and industry leaders with up-to-date advancements in the field while fostering an environment conducive to further innovation and collaboration. A preview issue of the journal is now available. Click here to read the issue now.  “At the heart of my vision for this journal is the ...

The U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research has funded a new Multi-University Research Initiative to be led by Yuliy Baryshnikov, a professor of mathematics and electrical & computer engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The initiative, Hybrid Dynamics – Deconstruction and Aggregation, or HyDDRA, will bring researchers from four universities together to address the problem of hybrid control using modern mathematical tools. The initiative will be funded with an award ...

Jonathan Middleton, DMA, a professor of music theory and composition at Eastern Washington University, is the lead author of a newly published study demonstrating how the transformation of digital data into sounds could be a game-changer in the growing world of data interpretation. The analysis was conducted over three years with researchers from the Human-Computer Interaction Group at Finland’s Tampere University. Recently published in the peer-review journal Frontiers in Big Data, Dr. Middleton’s research paper examines how he and his co-investigators were primarily concerned with showing ...

As the wind and rain pound the blades of a wind turbine, UBC Okanagan researchers carefully monitor screens, hundreds of kilometres away analyzing if the blade’s coatings can withstand the onslaught. While this was only a test in a lab, the researchers are working to improve the way structures such as turbines, helicopter propellers and even bridges are monitored for wear and tear from the weather. A changing climate is increasing the need for better erosion-corrosion monitoring in a wide range of industries from aviation to marine transportation and from renewable energy generation to construction, explains UBC Okanagan doctoral student Vishal Balasubramanian. In ...

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (October 18, 2023) — Today, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) announced the launch of a new biomedical research hub in New York City that will catalyze collaboration between leading scientific and technology institutions in the area, with the goal of solving grand scientific challenges on 10- to 15-year time horizons. The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub New York (CZ Biohub NY) brings together Columbia University, The Rockefeller University, and Yale University to create new technologies to characterize and bioengineer immune cells — with the ultimate ...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell researchers have harnessed the power of baker’s yeast to create a cost-effective and highly efficient approach for unraveling how plants synthesize medicinal compounds, and used the new method to identify key enzymes in a kratom tree. Aspirin, morphine and some chemotherapies are examples of drugs that are derived from natural compounds produced by plants. Understanding how a plant creates such compounds usually begins with analyzing plant transcriptomes to identify up to hundreds of genes that could potentially code for the enzymes that work together ...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, eviction moratoria prevented or delayed many people from experiencing homelessness. But now that the pandemic is over and the short-term eviction protection has ended, the number of evictions and cost of basic needs have increased. Daphne Hernandez, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Research with Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston, is studying how varying periods of eviction protection that people experienced during the pandemic is associated with psychosocial ...

A five-year, $6.4 million grant to develop an integrated, multiscale artificial intelligence (AI) approach to study genetic factors associated with Alzheimer’s disease has been awarded to UTHealth Houston by the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health. A team led by Zhongming Zhao, PhD, and Xiaoqian Jiang, PhD, principal investigators and professors at McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth Houston, are developing a deep-learning AI system to link brain imaging with cell-specific ...

SAN ANTONIO — October 18, 2023 —On November 2, Dr. Alan Stern, planetary scientist and associate vice president of Southwest Research Institute’s Space Science Division, will fly aboard the Virgin Galactic commercial spaceship VSS Unity on a suborbital space mission to train for a future NASA-funded Virgin Galactic suborbital flight in which he will perform two NASA experiments in space. “When I was a kid, human spaceflight was only available to NASA astronauts and Russian cosmonauts. Now that’s changing, and SwRI is pioneering a new era of space research being conducted in space, by space scientists,” Stern ...

Knee and hip replacements are increasing globally due to an ageing population. In the United States, the number of patients needing a joint replacement will exceed 2.7 million in the next 7 years. Post-surgery infections, while rare at 1-5% of patients, result in high patient morbidity and mortality. In the United States the annual national hospital costs for treating infection are projected to exceed $1.85 billion. We currently use an antibiotic, cefazolin, at the time of surgery to prevent infection. But with the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria, experts ...

Cedars-Sinai Cancer investigators have identified two promising new treatment options for men with recurrent prostate cancer—both of which helped patients live longer without their disease progressing than the current standard treatment. The results of their international Phase III clinical trial were published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. “If these treatments are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, our results will be practice changing,” said Stephen Freedland, MD, associate director for Training and Education and the Warschaw, Robertson, ...

Professor Matt Rosseinsky, from the University of Liverpool’s Department of Chemistry and Materials Innovation Factory, was presented with the 2023 Eni Energy Frontiers Award by Sergio Mattarella, the President of the Republic of Italy, at a ceremony in Rome this week. Professor Rosseinsky received the  prestigious Eni Award for the digital design and discovery of next-generation energy materials. The presentation ceremony took place at the Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome which was also attended by Giuseppe Zafarana, Chairman of Eni and Claudio Descalzi, CEO of Eni. Professor Rosseinsky said: “It was a great honour to be presented with this award by the President ...

The medical community has understood for some time that experiences with discrimination are bad for the health of people from underserved racial or ethnic groups — populations burdened with worse health outcomes than white patients for conditions including many cancers. The effects of chronic stress on the body have been considered one chief culprit.  Now, a research team from the Keck School of Medicine of USC and USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, supported in part by the National Institutes of Health, has added new knowledge about how Black patients in particular are impacted by exposure to discrimination in the course of cancer care. Through interviews ...

Images  //  Video  Taking inspiration from music streaming services, a team of engineers at the University of Michigan, Google and Georgia Tech has designed the simplest way for users to program their own exoskeleton assistance settings.   Of course, what's simple for the users is more complex underneath, as a machine learning algorithm repeatedly offers pairs of assistance profiles that are most likely to be comfortable for the wearer. The user then selects one of these two, and the predictor offers another ...

School Discipline Referrals for Substance Use Increased in Oregon Middle Schools after Legalization of Recreational Marijuana A recent study found that Oregon middle school students received office discipline referrals (ODRs) for substance use offenses 30% more often after legalization of recreational marijuana relative to comparison schools in other states over the same period (school years 2012/2013 – 2018/2019). There were no statistically discernable changes in high school ODRs. Recreational use by adults was legalized in Oregon in 2015. Researchers examined the extent to which legalization of recreational marijuana ...

UMass Amherst Engineering Professor Is Awarded $1.9 Million to Push the Bounds of Cancer, Heart Disease Research  Jinglei Ping will explore a new method of controlling cell communication by electronically regulating exosome traffic through the National Institutes of Health grant  AMHERST, Mass. — The human body is a sophisticated organism that has complex internal communication systems down to a cellular level. However, these systems transmit more than just messages about healthy human functions; they can also influence disease.   Consider cancer. Jinglei Ping poses the question: “How do unhealthy cells transport their own cancer ...