In September 2023, extreme rains struck South Africa’s Western Cape province, flooding villages and leaving a trail of destruction. The catastrophic devastation is just one recent example in a string of extreme weather events that are growing more common around the world. Fueled by rising sea surface temperatures from global warming, torrential storms are increasing both in frequency and magnitude. Concurrently, global warming is also producing the opposite effect in other instances, as a mega-drought recently threatened the water supply of Cape Town in southwestern Africa to the point where residents were at risk of running out of water. This one-two punch of weather extremes ...

INDIANAPOLIS— The Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center was awarded a prestigious grant to train the next generation of cancer drug discovery and development researchers. Known as a T32 grant, the five-year, $794,000 National Cancer Institute award will establish the Pediatric and Adult Translational Cancer Drug Discovery and Development Training Program (PACT-D3). The award supports three graduate fellows annually, with the cancer center adding to the grant to support an additional two students. “This training ...

The University of North Florida College of Education and Human Services is pleased to announce a gift of $1.3 million from Gilchrist Berg, local philanthropist and president/founder of Water Street Capital. The gift will support current and future teachers in the region and provide highly trained and high-quality educators to address the critical teacher shortage. Berg’s gift funds 20 scholarships annually for the next two years to help launch the Osprey Teacher Residency and Accelerated Program for aspiring educators attending UNF. Education majors from Florida can apply for the scholarships and choose a variety of pathways under the program. “Gilchrist Berg is an inspiration ...

Transgender women and Black gay and bisexual men in Chicago are nearly twice as likely to contract syphilis at some point in their lives as white gay men, according to a new study conducted by scientists at Northwestern University. The study, “Syphilis prevalence, incidence, and demographic differences in a longitudinal study of young sexual and gender minority adults assigned male at birth,” is the first to examine syphilis over time among young sexual and gender minorities — a category which encompasses gay and bisexual men, trans women and non-binary individuals. They found meaningful demographic differences ...

WASHINGTON (October 10, 2023) – Alliance for Pediatric Device Innovation (APDI), the federally funded consortium led by Children’s National Hospital, is joining with MedTech Color for a special edition of the “Make Your Medical Device Pitch for Kids!”™  competition focused on supporting African-American and Hispanic innovators.     With the aim of making pediatric medical device innovation more inclusive, organizers are accepting applications for pediatric medical devices from innovators ...

HOUSTON – (Oct. 10, 2023) – Researchers have long recognized the therapeutic potential of using magnetoelectrics ⎯ materials that can turn magnetic fields into electric fields ⎯ to stimulate neural tissue in a minimally invasive way and help treat neurological disorders or nerve damage. The problem, however, is that neurons have a hard time responding to the shape and frequency of the electric signal resulting from this conversion. Rice University neuroengineer Jacob Robinson and his team designed ...

The U.S. Department of Energy recently announced a $10 million investment in three projects to develop novel technologies to manufacture high-performance superconducting tapes in the United States. Two of the projects are built on the foundations of cutting-edge research from the University of Houston. The DOE values superconductivity because it means zero wasted electricity. Superconductivity, found only in certain materials, allows direct electric current to be conducted with zero resistance and without energy loss. Widely available low cost, high-temperature superconducting (HTS) tapes are used for a broad range ...

Jennifer L. West, Ph.D., Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Virginia, has been elected to the prestigious NATIONAL ACADEMY OF MEDICINE, one of the highest recognitions in health and medicine. The National Academy of Medicine is one of three institutions that make up the National Academies, operating under an 1863 Congressional charter signed by President Lincoln to assemble experts to advise the nation in science and technology. “It is my honor to welcome this truly exceptional class of new members to the National ...

Automated Insulin Delivery in Women with Pregnancy Complicated by Type 1 Diabetes The New England Journal of Medicine: Hybrid Closed-Loop technology improved maternal glucose levels during pregnancy complicated by type 1 diabetes. Authors say that hybrid closed-loop technology should now be offered to all pregnant women with type 1 diabetes For pregnant women with type 1 diabetes, a technology giving insulin doses as informed by a smartphone algorithm, helps them better manage their blood sugars, compared to traditional insulin pumps or multiple daily injections, according to a new randomised trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine ...

The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, the world’s largest private funder of mental health research grants, today announced it is awarding the 2023 Outstanding Achievement Prizes in Mental Health to five scientists for their exceptional work in advancing psychiatric research. The prizewinners will be the featured speakers at the BBRF International Mental Health Research Symposium on October 27, 2023, in New York City, and will receive their awards later that evening at the BBRF International ...

Paper Title: Histopathologic Brain Age Estimation via Multiple Instance Learning Journal: Acta Neuropathologica, October 10, 2023 Authors:  John F. Crary, MD, PhD, Professor of Pathology, Molecular and Cell-Based Medicine, Neuroscience, and Artificial Intelligence and Human Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Kurt W. Farrell, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pathology, Molecular and Cell-Based Medicine, Neuroscience, and Artificial Intelligence and Human Health at Icahn Mount Sinai; Gabriel A. Marx, MD, MS, Resident in Neurology at Icahn Mount Sinai; and other coauthors. Bottom Line: The aging brain undergoes structural ...

JMIR Public Health and Surveillance Editor-in-Chief: Travis Sanchez and guest editors Dr. Roy Rillera Marzo, Dr. Adnan Kisa, Petra Heidler and Shekhar Chauhan welcome submissions to a special theme issue examining "Scaling Up Effective Public Health Interventions for Long-Term Population Health Benefits." This special issue aligns with the journal’s commitment to advancing knowledge in public health and disease prevention. It provides an opportunity to showcase cutting-edge research in preventive strategies, with ...

LOS ANGELES — John D. Carpten, Ph.D., chief scientific officer at City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States and a leading research center for diabetes and other life-threatening illnesses, was presented with one of the highest honors in health and medicine today when he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). NAM recognized Carpten “for leading the genomics field in understanding how racial and ethnic backgrounds affect cancer predisposition,” sharing that ...

A University of Massachusetts Amherst team has demonstrated in theory that a protein antigen from a childhood vaccine can be delivered into the cells of a malignant tumor to refocus the body’s immune system against the cancer, effectively halting it and preventing its recurrence. The bacteria-based intracellular delivering (ID) system uses a non-toxic form of Salmonella that releases a drug, in this case a vaccine antigen, after it’s inside a solid-tumor cancer cell. “As an off-the-shelf immunotherapy, this bacterial system has ...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell researchers took a novel approach to explore the way microstructure emerges in a 3D-printed metal alloy: They bombarded it with X-rays while the material was being printed. By seeing how the process of thermomechanical deformation creates localized microscale phenomena such as bending, fragmentation and oscillation in real time, the researchers will be able to produce customized materials that incorporate such performance-enhancing characteristics. The group’s paper, “Dendritic Deformation Modes in Additive ...

In the last 20 years, disasters have claimed more than a million lives and caused nearly $3 trillion in economic losses worldwide, according to the United Nations. Disaster relief organizations (DROs) mobilize critical resources to help impacted communities, and they use social media to distribute information rapidly and broadly. Many DROs post content via multiple accounts within a single platform to represent both national and local levels. Specifically examining wildfires in collaboration with the Canadian Red Cross (CRC), new research from the University of Notre Dame contradicts ...

Artificial intelligence (AI) comes with promises of helping coders code faster, drivers drive safer, and making daily tasks less time-consuming. But in a commentary published October 10 in the journal Joule, the founder of Digiconomist demonstrates that the tool, when adopted widely, could have a large energy footprint, which in the future may exceed the power demands of some countries. “Looking at the growing demand for AI service, it’s very likely that energy consumption related to AI will significantly increase in the coming years,” says author Alex de Vries (@DigiEconomist), a Ph.D. candidate at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Since 2022, generative AI, which ...

Adulteration is a bitter truth in the sweet world of honey. As consumers seek nature’s nectar for its purity and health benefits, a shadowy industry taints this golden elixir with hidden additives, most commonly water. Standard detection methods of honey adulteration are expensive, and either have complicated operation methods or low detection accuracy. In Review of Scientific Instruments, from AIP Publishing, a team of scientists from the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics ...

About The Study: A multilevel primary care intervention that included electronic health record reminders and patient outreach with or without patient navigation improved timely follow-up of overdue abnormal cancer screening test results for breast, cervical, colorectal, and lung cancer.  Authors: Steven J. Atlas, M.D., M.P.H., of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, 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/jama.2023.18755) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including ...

Long-term exposure to low-frequency noise can cause numerous health problems, but the solution may be found in an unexpected object, a pingpong ball. Conventionally thought of as the hollow plastic balls that speed through the air during a fast-tempo game of table tennis, with a few modifications, pingpong balls can help absorb the city din. Low-frequency noise is ubiquitous in cities, near roads, and by airports. Though potentially heard as background in the acoustic landscape, it can trigger earaches, respiratory impairment, irritability, and other ...

About The Study: This study of middle-aged Chinese surgery patients found subjective cognitive and short-term memory impairment within 12 months after both cardiac and noncardiac surgery, with multiple identified risk factors, underscoring the potential of preoperative psychological interventions and optimized perioperative management for postoperative cognitive impairment prevention. Authors: Huan Song, M.D., Ph.D., and Qian Li, M.D., of Sichuan University in Chengdu, China, are the corresponding authors. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media ...

About The Study: This cross-sectional study found that most survey respondents who gave birth between June and December 2020 did not use prenatal telehealth, and a personal preference for in-person care was the most common reason. Patients’ preferences should influence how prenatal telehealth, which has both benefits and drawbacks, is incorporated into their care. Authors: Rebecca A. Gourevitch, Ph.D., of the University of Maryland in College Park, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi: ...

Discharged in large quantities by textile, cosmetic, ink, paper and other manufacturers, dyes carry high-toxicity and can bring potential carcinogens to wastewater. It’s a major concern for wastewater treatment—but researchers in Drexel University’s College of Engineering may have found a solution, using a tiny nanofilament. A study lead Michel Barsoum, Ph.D., Distinguished University professor in the College of Engineering, and his team, including researchers from Drexel’s College of Arts and Sciences, found that a ...

Recognized as a pivotal developmental transition, flowering marks the continuation of a plant's lifecycle. Flowering time determines the length of plant reproductive period and environmental adaptability. The correct flowering time is very significant for plants to reproduce fruit successfully and is controlled by environment and endogenous signals. Vernalization and photoperiod are the two main flowering pathways orchestrating a large number of floral signals. Methylation is one of the most important epigenetic modifications, which is involved in many key plant growth and development events. Methylation, including histone methylation, DNA methylation ...

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed electronic “stickers” that measure the force exerted by one object upon another. The force stickers are wireless, run without batteries and fit in tight spaces. That makes them versatile for a wide range of applications, from arming robots with a sense of touch to elevating the immersive experience of VR and AR, making biomedical devices smarter, monitoring the safety of industrial equipment, and improving the accuracy and efficiency of inventory management in warehouses. They could be used, for example, in knee implants to measure the forces that implants exert on the joint. ...