About The Study: In this study of 69,000 adults with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, there was no difference in sustained virologic response across alcohol use categories, even for patients with high-risk consumption or alcohol use disorder, after adjusting for potential confounding variables. These findings suggest that restricting access to direct-acting antiviral therapy on the basis of alcohol use creates an unnecessary barrier for patients and challenges HCV elimination goals. Authors: Emily J. Cartwright, M.D., of the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, ...

Earthworms are important drivers of global food production, contributing to approximately 6.5% of grain yield and 2.3% of legumes produced worldwide each year, according to new work published by Colorado State University scientists in the journal Nature Communications.     These new estimates from a trio of CSU researchers mean earthworms may account for as much as 140 million metric tons of food produced annually — roughly comparative to the amount of cereal grains (rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, maize and millet) ...

Leipzig. The decline in invertebrates also affects the functioning of ecosystems, including two critical ecosystem services: aboveground pest control and belowground decomposition of organic material, according to a new study published in Current Biology and led by researchers at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and Leipzig University. The study provides evidence that loss of invertebrates leads to a reduction in important ecosystem services and to the decoupling of ecosystem processes, making immediate protection measures necessary. Invertebrates, such as insects and also ...

Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plant growth, but the overuse of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers in agriculture is not sustainable. In a review article publishing in the journal Trends in Microbiology on September 26, a team of bacteriologists and plant scientists discuss the possibility of using genetic engineering to facilitate mutualistic relationships between plants and nitrogen-fixing microbes called “diazotrophs.” These engineered associations would help crops acquire nitrogen from the air by mimicking the mutualisms between legumes and nitrogen-fixing bacteria. “Engineering associative diazotrophs to provide nitrogen ...

A new study finds that consanguinity – unions between close relatives - may increase the risk of common diseases such as type 2 diabetes and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and their collaborators at Queen Mary University of London analysed the genomic data of diverse groups to investigate the relationship between autozygosity - a measure of genetic relatedness between an individual’s parents - and the prevalence of common diseases, with a novel method that reduces confounding due to sociocultural factors. They focused ...

Redefining Global Health Security: A Novel Framework Sheds Light on Equity and Decolonial Approaches Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and London, UK – 25 September 2023 In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new policy paper titled "Global Health Security and the Health-Security Nexus: Principles, Politics and Praxis" in the journal BMJ Global Health, warns of dangers and potential pitfalls associated with the increased attention paid to ‘global health security’ and the growing interaction between public health and security actors. According to the authors, the prevailing ...

"Of all the subspecies of reindeer found in the high north, the Svalbard reindeer has the most inbreeding and the lowest genetic diversity," says Nicolas Dussex, a postdoc at Norwegian University of Science and Technology´s (NTNU) Department of Natural History. It was only 7000-8000 years ago that the first reindeer migrated to Svalbard, most likely from Russia via Novaya Zemlya and the islands of Franz Josef Land. Perhaps there were no more than a few animals that established themselves on the arctic ...

HOUSTON – (Sept. 26, 2023) – The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) has awarded $45 million to rapidly develop sense-and-respond implant technology that could slash U.S. cancer-related deaths by more than 50%. The award to a Rice University-led team of researchers from seven states will fast-track development and testing of a new approach to cancer treatment that aims to dramatically improve immunotherapy outcomes for patients with ovarian, pancreatic and other difficult-to-treat cancers. “Instead of tethering patients to hospital beds, IV bags and external monitors, ...

Metal nanoclusters are tiny, crystalline structures up to two nanometers (2 x 10-9 meters) in diameter that contain a few to hundreds of metal atoms.  Understanding the precise assembly of metal nanoclusters is paramount to determining how different structures affect the properties and molecular interactions of these materials.  Researchers recently synthesized two similar gold-silver (Au9Ag6) nanoclusters in a highly controlled manner to determine the precise atomic structure of each nanocluster and the effects of specific thiol ligands, or sulfur-containing binding molecules, on material synthesis.   Given their extremely small size, metal nanoclusters have ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — What makes for a successful climate-resilient fishery, one that sustainably produces resources for human benefit despite increasing climate stressors and human impacts? It’s a question that faces present and future fisheries, their practitioners and fishing communities as the world turns to the ocean to feed its growing population.   “For a fishery to be resilient it needs to be able to prepare for, resist, cope with, recover from, or adapt to any given impact,” said Jacob Eurich, who is a research associate at UC Santa Barbara’s Marine Science Institute, and a fisheries scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). “In ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – In a study of more than 2,000 chest X-rays, radiologists outperformed AI in accurately identifying the presence and absence of three common lung diseases, according to a study published in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). “Chest radiography is a common diagnostic tool, but significant training and experience is required to interpret exams correctly,” said lead researcher Louis L. Plesner, M.D., resident radiologist and Ph.D. fellow in the Department of Radiology at Herlev and Gentofte Hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark. While commercially available ...

SAN ANTONIO — September 26, 2023—Researchers from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) are developing techniques to detect traumatic brain injury (TBI) by analyzing breath for specific biomarkers. The project, led by SwRI’s Dr. Mark Libardoni and UTSA’s Dr. Marzieh Memar and Dr. Morteza Seidi, is supported by a $125,000 grant from the Connecting through Research Partnerships (Connect) program. Breath analysis is performed by analyzing exhaled breath for specific biomarkers, such as metabolites, proteins and ...

A complete map of all the connections in an entire mammalian brain may be in sight. Allen Institute researchers have just launched three new projects to construct large, detailed maps of neuronal connections in sections of the mouse and macaque brains, with an eye toward creating full wiring diagrams of these animals’ brains in the future. These projects are funded by the National Institutes of Health’s Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) Initiative. Allen Institute research teams ...

The MIT Press is delighted to announce that it has received a two-year, $275,000 Early-Concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) from the National Science Foundation to expand the shift+OPEN initiative and shift at least two more journals to diamond open access. The Press will also use the grant to assess and compare the viability of open access models for advancing and sustaining the outputs of scientific and scholarly STEM and HSS research.  “We’re grateful to the National Science Foundation for their support of our growing shift+OPEN program,” says Nick Lindsay, Director for Journals and Open Access for the MIT ...

Incorporating targeted food and nutrition strategies into healthcare on a national level will improve health and quality of life, reduce work for hospitals, and cut healthcare costs, according to experts studying Food is Medicine (FIM) efforts. The health and economic benefits of this approach are detailed in a report out today from researchers at the Food is Medicine Institute at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, through support from The Rockefeller Foundation. The True Cost of Food: Food is Medicine Case Study quantifies the potential health and economic benefits of FIM efforts, which refer to food-based nutrition ...

PASADENA, CA — September 26, 2023 — The Giant Magellan Telescope begins the four-year process to fabricate and polish its seventh and final primary mirror, the last required to complete the telescope’s 368 square meter light collecting surface, the world’s largest and most challenging optics ever produced. Together, the mirrors will collect more light than any other telescope in existence, allowing humanity to unlock the secrets of the Universe by providing detailed chemical analyses of celestial objects and their origin.   Last week, the University of Arizona Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab closed the lid on nearly 20 tons of the ...

Professor Soon-Yong Kwon in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Graduate School of Semiconductor Materials and Devices Engineering at UNIST, in collaboration with Professor Zonghoon Lee, has embarked on a pioneering research endeavor focusing on the development of high-performance p-type semiconductor devices, utilizing molybdenum ditelluride (MoTe2)—a compound renowned for its unique properties. This pioneering technology holds great promise for application in the next-generation complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) industry, where ultrafine technology is crucial. CMOS ...

Nearly one in three Americans wear a wearable device, like a smartwatch, to track their health and fitness. Studies have shown positive effects of increasing movement in ways that can be measured by these devices, especially for people who recently had a heart attack or other cardiovascular event. But a Michigan Medicine-led report shows that adding a mobile health application to such devices yields mixed results. Tailored text messages to encourage high-risk people to move more may improve some short-term outcomes but doesn’t always improve physical activity levels for everyone.   The ...

A study digs into a topical debate: should institutions accept donations from bad people? Jeffrey Epstein donated to MIT after he was a convicted sex offender. The Sackler family donated to museums around the world, which had to decide whether to keep their names on display and whether to continue accepting funds after the family faced widespread criticism and legal consequences for pushing addictive painkillers on the public. Ethicists are often split on whether organizations should take money from morally tainted donors. The money can support good outcomes in the world, but the reputation of the organization may suffer and the public ...

Previous studies have shown that yoga therapy and lifestyle modifications have improved heart failure patients’ quality of life and enhanced their cardiovascular function. A new study, presented at the American College of Cardiology Asia 2023 conference, examines the long-term outcomes of yoga therapy to determine the benefit of adding yoga therapy as a complementary treatment in the management of heart failure. Heart failure is a form of cardiovascular disease where the heart muscle is either too weak or too stiff to pump properly, often leading to fluid buildup, shortness of breath and other complications. ...

Over the past few years, the field of artificial intelligence (AI) has witnessed numerous breakthroughs. One such remarkable milestone was the development and adoption of chatbots and conversational agents based on large language models, including ChatGPT. These systems can engage in realistic, human-like conversations with users and help them in many ways, such as by curating information, generating recommendations, or assisting in complex tasks. Interestingly, owing to their pre-training on large amounts of data, chatbots like ChatGPT are capable of generating highly personalized recommendations, considering factors like user’s interests, ...

Hospital visits from alcohol- and substance-related disorders are driven by elevated temperatures and could be further affected by rising temperatures due to climate change, according to new research by environmental health scientists at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.  The study, which is published in the peer-reviewed journal Communications Medicine, is likely the first comprehensive investigation of the association between temperature and alcohol- and substance-related hospital visits.   “We ...

LA JOLLA (September 26, 2023)—Movement offers a window into how the brain operates and controls the body. From clipboard-and-pen observation to modern artificial intelligence-based techniques, tracking human and animal movement has come a long way. Current cutting-edge methods utilize artificial intelligence to automatically track parts of the body as they move. However, training these models is still time-intensive and limited by the need for researchers to manually mark each body part hundreds to thousands of times. Now, Associate Professor Eiman Azim and team have created GlowTrack, a non-invasive movement tracking method that uses fluorescent dye markers to train ...

Key points   Biosensing has been valuable for detecting biomolecules, including novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), but achieving both high sensitivity and rapidity has been challenging.   Rapid and high-sensitivity detection of SARS-CoV-2 was achieved by utilizing optical-to-electric frequency conversion of optical combs and active-dummy temperature compensation with dual-optical-comb configuration.   This enables ultra-early detection of infectious pathogens, health biomarkers, food contaminants, environmental hormones, and more, contributing to various preventive measures. Research Introduction ...

Indigenous communities act in sophisticated ways to deter unauthorised mining in Colombia, shows a recently published book by Postdoctoral Researcher Diana Arbeláez-Ruiz from the University of Eastern Finland. The book focuses on Indigenous people and mining in Colombia’s North Cauca region, where multiple armed groups and illicit economies operate. The research the book is based upon was carried out in 2016–2019. As the illegal armed group presence and illicit economies situation in the region has intensified since, the book remains highly topical today. Published by Routledge, the book documents what the Nasa Indigenous community do to stop unauthorised mining in their ...