A new study by Case Western Reserve University PhD student Russell Engelman published in PeerJ Life & Environment attempts to address a persistent problem in paleontology – what were the size of Dunkleosteus and other late Devonian arthrodire placoderms. Arthrodire placoderms are extinct fishes with had armor covering their head and part of their torso, but like sharks the rest of their skeleton was made of cartilage, meaning most of their body did not preserve when they became fossilized.   Previous size estimates for Dunkleosteus were ...

Research Highlights: Analysis found that more than half of preeclampsia cases that occur during weeks 37-42 of pregnancy (called at-term preeclampsia) may be prevented with timed birth, such as a scheduled induction or Cesarean delivery. Planned labor inductions and Cesarean deliveries are already widely practiced for a range of reasons, however, they are seldom considered as an intervention to prevent at-term preeclampsia, which may be life-threatening. Embargoed until 4 a.m. CT/5 a.m. ET Monday, April 10, 2023 DALLAS, April ...

Statement Highlights: A new American Heart Association scientific statement reviews research about racial and ethnic differences in cardiovascular risk factors among women in the U.S. In addition to traditional risk factors, women of underrepresented races or ethnicities experience challenges in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular conditions due to language barriers, discrimination, difficulties in acculturation or assimilation, lack of financial resources or health insurance, or lack of access to health care. Women of racial and ethnic backgrounds other than white have been underrepresented ...

Sea levels along the U.S. Southeast and Gulf coasts have been rapidly accelerating, reaching record-breaking rates over the past 12 years, according to a new study led by scientists at Tulane University. In the study, published in Nature Communications, researchers said they had detected rates of sea-level rise of about a half an inch per year since 2010. They attribute the acceleration to the compounding effects of man-made climate change and natural climate variability.  “These rapid rates are unprecedented over at least the 20th century and they have been three times higher than the global average over the same period,” says Sönke ...

For the first time, the British Association for Psychopharmacology (BAP) has produced a guideline on catatonia. Catatonia is a severe psychiatric disorder that has been associated with a wide range of medical complications. Yet recognition and management remain poor. Twenty-two experts from across three continents examined the latest research on this important condition and have developed a series of recommendations ranging from diagnosis and investigation to treatment. According to the lead author, Dr Jonathan Rogers of University ...

  **Note: the release below is a special early release from the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2023, Copenhagen, 15-18 April). Please credit the conference if you use this story**   Embargo: 2301H UK time Sunday 9 April   **Note – the press release is available in Spanish and Portuguese, see links below**   Targeted testing for HIV in emergency departments has great potential for increasing diagnoses, this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Copenhagen, Denmark, (15-18 April), will ...

By using precision gene engineering techniques, researchers at the Earlham Institute in Norwich have been able to turn tobacco plants into solar-powered factories for moth sex pheromones.  Critically, they’ve shown how the production of these molecules can be efficiently managed so as not to hamper normal plant growth.  Pheromones are complex chemicals produced and released by an organism as a means of communication. They allow members of the same species to send signals, which includes letting others know they’re looking for love. Farmers can hang pheromone dispersers among their crops to mimic the signals ...

**Note: the release below is a special early release from the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2023, Copenhagen, 15-18 April). Please credit the conference if you use this story** Embargo: 2301H UK time Friday 7 April New research being presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Copenhagen, Denmark, (15-18 April) has identified several gold-based compounds with the potential to treat multidrug-resistant “superbugs”. With ...

It feels like a classical paradox: How do you see the invisible? But for modern astronomers, it is a very real challenge: How do you measure dark matter, which by definition emits no light? The answer: You see how it impacts things that you can see. In the case of dark matter, astronomers watch how light from distant galaxies bends around it. An international team of astrophysicists and cosmologists have spent the past year teasing out the secrets of this elusive material, using sophisticated computer simulations and the observations from the one of the most powerful astronomical cameras in the world, the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC). The team is led by astronomers from Princeton ...

People with autism spectrum disorder can be classified into four distinct subtypes based on their brain activity and behavior, according to a study from Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The study, published March 9 in Nature Neuroscience, leveraged machine learning to analyze newly available neuroimaging data from 299 people with autism and 907 neurotypical people. They found patterns of brain connections linked with behavioral traits in people with autism, such as verbal ability, social affect, and repetitive or stereotypic behaviors. They confirmed that the four autism subgroups could also be replicated in a separate dataset ...

“[...] DPE analysis may have an important role in improving the diagnosis and management of CRC.” BUFFALO, NY- April 7, 2023 – A new editorial paper was published in Oncoscience (Volume 10) on March 23, 2023, entitled, “New method of clustering colorectal cancer patients using differential presence of exons (DPE) sequencing.” Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a heterogeneous disease that occurs in the colon and the rectum, parts of the gastrointestinal system. CRC is the third leading cause of cancer-related ...

Breast cancer is the most common cancer to affect women worldwide. According to the American Cancer Society, about 1 in 8 women in the United States will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. While it is not possible to entirely prevent breast cancer, various medical organizations advise regular screening to detect and treat cases at the early stage. The breast density, defined as the proportion of fibro-glandular tissue within the breast, is often used to assess the risk of developing breast cancer. While various methods are available to estimate this measure, studies have shown that subjective assessments conducted by radiologists based on visual analogue scales ...

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people who experienced intimate partner violence in their current relationship before COVID-19 had an increase in the frequency of victimization after the pandemic began, according to a Rutgers study.   While national emergencies, crises and pandemics increase the frequency of health risks and intimate partner violence few studies have considered the nuances of social and psychological factors, such as socioeconomic characteristics and mental health, in explaining the increase in intimate partner violence during times of crisis.   “To date, most programs on intimate ...

Irvine, Calif., April 7, 2023 — Human activities emit many kinds of pollutants into the air, and without a molecule called hydroxide (OH), many of these pollutants would keep aggregating in the atmosphere. How OH itself forms in the atmosphere was viewed as a complete story, but in new research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a research team that includes Sergey Nizkorodov, a University of California, Irvine professor of chemistry, report that a strong electric field that exists at the surface between airborne water droplets and ...

The explosion of a star is a dramatic event, but the remains the star leaves behind can be even more dramatic. A new mid-infrared image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope provides one stunning example. It shows the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A), created by a stellar explosion seen from Earth 340 years ago. Cas A is the youngest known remnant from an exploding, massive star in our galaxy, which makes it a unique opportunity to learn more about how such supernovae occur.   “Cas ...

If you know the atoms that compose a particular molecule or solid material, the interactions between those atoms can be determined computationally, by solving quantum mechanical equations — at least, if the molecule is small and simple. However, solving these equations, critical for fields from materials engineering to drug design, requires a prohibitively long computational time for complex molecules and materials. Now, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago’s ...

On January 6, 2021, the public watched in disbelief as the Capitol building was stormed by hundreds of protestors. Most spectators at home didn't know violence at the Capitol building was already circulating through far-right social media channels for months.  Social media, for better or worse, play a large role in how we consume information – as well as spreading misinformation and conspiratorial propaganda.   Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh received $100,000 as part of the Meta Foundational Integrity Research ...

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — April 7, 2023 — A trio of premier Southwest biomedical research centers — HonorHealth Research Institute, City of Hope and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), part of City of Hope — have developed a more precise method that may help determine when it is best to surgically remove of pancreatic cancer tumors. Surgical removal of the tumor can be a key step in helping extend the survival of patients with pancreatic cancer, one of the most aggressive and deadly of all malignancies and the nation’s third leading cause of cancer-related death. Currently, surgery — or surgery plus  chemotherapy ...

Philadelphia, April 7, 2022—A regulatory class of human T cells descends from two different origins, one that relates to autoimmunity and one that relates to protective immunity, according to a new study led by Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The findings, published today in Science Immunology, could pave the way for new treatments for autoimmune diseases that target the immune system selectively. “When it comes to autoimmunity, the prevailing wisdom has been that the only way to stop inflammation ...

Researchers have spotted how specific proteins within the chromosomes of roundworms enable their offspring to produce specialized cells generations later, a startling finding that upends classical thinking that hereditary information for cell differentiation is mostly ingrained within DNA and other genetic factors. The Johns Hopkins University team reports for the first time the mechanisms by which a protein known as histone H3 controls when and how worm embryos produce both highly specific cells and pluripotent cells, cells that can turn certain genes on ...

A team of scientists at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) has identified a stress-regulated gene that plays a role in the link between long-term stress and a common type of depressive behavior in mice. Specifically, this gene was needed for long-term stress to produce a loss of interest in activities that were once rewarding or pleasurable – often called anhedonia. However, the gene did not play a role in other common depressive-like symptoms, such as social avoidance and increased anxiety-like behavior. The team reported its findings recently in eLife. The study was led by neuroscientists Makoto Taniguchi, Ph.D., and Christopher Cowan, Ph.D., and also ...

Common wisdom suggests that a core difference between solitude and loneliness is choice. Whereas a person who appreciates solitude might choose to enjoy a quiet night in or a solo trip abroad, a lonely person may feel disconnected from other people even in a crowded room. New research published in Psychological Science supports this notion, suggesting that lonely people may think differently regardless of the size of their social networks.  “We found that lonely individuals are exceptionally dissimilar to their peers in the way that they process the world around them … ...

Context and Background Teaching has historically been a licensed profession in which a limited number of schools of education were typically housed in universities and offered a traditional path to certification (Kleiner, 2000). However, 30 years of documented teacher shortages in the United States resulted in federal and state policies that reduce barriers to teacher licensure (Cross, 2017). The goal of these policies is to create a larger pool of new teachers in less time than it typically takes schools of education to produce ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD, describes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, two chronic diseases that cause inflammation in the intestines. IBD, which affects about 3 million adults in the United States, is an autoimmune disorder — a condition in which the body’s immune system attacks healthy tissues. Its symptoms include diarrhea, rectal bleeding, fatigue, weight loss, and stomach cramps. The intestinal epithelium, made up of a layer of cells that lines the intestine, plays an important role in IBD because it can be easily disrupted during gut inflammation. A specialized ...

Alagille syndrome, a genetic disease estimated to affect 1 in 30,000 individuals, is caused by mutations in the gene JAG1 in most cases. The mutations affect multiple organs including the liver where it often results in cholestasis, a condition in which the flow of bile from the liver stops or slows, leading to bile buildup that in time causes liver damage. Current treatments focus on delaying disease progression; the only cure for liver disease in Alagille syndrome is liver transplantation. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and collaborating institutions have discovered a strategy that prevents liver damage in animal ...