The National Institutes of Health will award up to $2 million in cash prizes to accelerate development of diagnostic and monitoring technologies that improve fetal health outcomes in low-resource settings. The Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics Technology (RADx® Tech) Fetal Monitoring Challenge calls on scientists, engineers, and clinicians around the country to submit their innovative approaches and compete for prizes and additional resources to support technology development and clinical impact. The challenge is sponsored by the NIH’s National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), ...

Many pathogens, including the virus that causes COVID-19, are thought to have originated in wild animals before spilling into human populations. Agriculture is often blamed for accelerating this process, which is known as zoonotic spillover, through deforestation and habitat fragmentation that reduce biodiversity and increase the likelihood of contact between infected wildlife and humans. But in a Perspectives article published online Sept. 15 in the journal One Earth, University of Michigan ecologist Ivette Perfecto and her colleagues argue that agriculture can both help and hinder: ...

More than 720,000 Floridians will be living with Alzheimer’s disease by 2025. Currently, Florida has the second highest prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease in the United States and is the sixth leading cause of death in Floridians 65 and older. Although the epidemic of age-related brain dysfunction – of which Alzheimer’s disease is a major factor –  is growing at an alarming rate, there is a disconnect between the existing care model designed for urgent care and the progressive nature of this chronic condition, which tends to worsen over time. To address this widespread health concern, Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt College ...

(COLUMBUS, Ohio) – Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is among the most common pediatric neurodevelopmental disorders. In 2019, nearly 10% of United States (U.S.) children had a diagnosis of ADHD. Approximately 3.3 million children, or roughly 5 out of every 100 children in the U.S., are currently prescribed medication for ADHD. In a new study, published today in Pediatrics, researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Policy and Central Ohio Poison Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital investigated the characteristics ...

The Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT, President Kim Byung-Suk) has developed a 'Road Pothole Filtering Program' to establish an emergency road restoration system for frequent pothole occurrences. Commonly referred to as 'the landmine of the road,' potholes are a road damage phenomenon in which parts of the asphalt sink into bowl-like depressions. Potholes occur when a significant amount of rainwater infiltrates the road surface, weakening the ground below and causing the asphalt ...

A new diagnostic scoring system, developed by renowned breast cancer experts, is now available as an easy-to-use online tool through Susan G. Komen®, the world’s leading breast cancer organization. This tool will help health care providers recognize and effectively diagnose a rare and aggressive breast cancer, inflammatory breast cancer. The new Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC) Scoring System online tool is available at https://www.komen.org/ibc and may help to increase diagnostic accuracy, predict outcomes, guide treatment decisions ...

Weather data from several ships bombed by Japanese pilots at Pearl Harbor has been recovered in a rescue mission that will help scientists understand how the global climate is changing.  Crew members aboard various vessels - such as the USS Pennsylvania and the USS Tennessee - died when their battleships were targeted in December 1941. Despite these losses, many boats returned to service during the Second World War and US naval servicemen continued their daily duties, which included recording weather data.   A new research paper, published in Geoscience Data ...

Investigators found and catalogued mysterious RNA circles that are linked to brain cell identity Findings show that circular RNA is produced by brain cells damaged in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease Circular RNA production from one Parkinson’s gene DNAJC6 was abnormal even prior to symptom onset Researchers are gaining new insights into neurological diseases by studying circular RNAs (circRNAs) in brain cells. A new study by investigators from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General ...

A new study published in a Nature Partner Journal, npj Microgravity, finds an engineered compound given to mice aboard the International Space Station (ISS) largely prevented the bone loss associated with time spent in space. The study, led by a transdisciplinary team of professors at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Forsyth Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, highlight a promising therapy to mitigate extreme bone loss from long-duration space travel as well as musculoskeletal ...

Javier Ramón Azcón, an ICREA research professor and the leader of the Biosensors for Bioengineering group at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), has been granted an "ERC Proof of Concept Grant." This prestigious grant is awarded by the European Research Council (ERC) and aims to explore the commercial and societal potential of research projects that have been previously funded by the ERC. Recipients use this type of funding to verify the practical viability of scientific concepts, explore business opportunities or prepare patent applications. Ramón's project has been named "Uniink" and centers ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – As smoke from Canada's historic wildfires triggers poor air quality alerts across the country, many parents worry about the impact on their child’s health, a new national poll suggests. Two-thirds of parents say over the past two years they have experienced at least one day with poor or unhealthy air quality in their area, according to the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health. In response to poor air quality alerts, most parents kept their windows closed and limited ...

It's no longer just about stopping, but how we can live with climate change. To figure this out, we must delve into our cultures, as highlighted in a special issue of The Royal Society. A study by the Complexity Science Hub points out how our history could help guide the way. Currently, we are grappling with a global crisis convergence. Various types of threats intersect, intertwine, and test our collective resilience, from climate change and economic inequality to political polarization. Although the scale and global reach of these challenges present new hurdles, these threats have been faced and, sometimes, overcome in the past. Societies today ...

All animals have an internal clock called a circadian clock, which is regulated by cues from their environment — but animals in zoos can be exposed to very different cues from animals in the wild. Since all animals’ circadian clocks are linked to their behavior and physiology, this could be significant to their welfare, which is crucial to maintaining captive populations of animals at high risk of extinction in the wild, like giant pandas. Scientists set out to understand how the ‘jet lag’ of living ...

Developed in 2011, MXene is a two-dimensional nanomaterial with alternating metal and carbon layers, which has high electrical conductivity and can be combined with various metal compounds, making it a material that can be utilized in various industries such as semiconductors, electronic devices, and sensors. To properly utilize MXene, it is important to know the type and amount of molecules covered on the surface, and if the molecules covered on the surface are fluorine, the electrical conductivity of decreases and the efficiency of electromagnetic wave shielding decreases. However, since it is only 1 nm (nanometer - billionth of a meter) thick, ...

Researchers from the University of Waterloo completed the first-ever assessment of a Canadian hospital to reveal its total environmental footprint and specific carbon emission hotspots. Studying a hospital in British Columbia during its 2019 fiscal year, the researchers identified energy and water use and purchasing of medical products as the hospital’s primary hotspots, accounting for over half of the yearly footprint, totalling 3500-5000 tons of CO2 equivalent. One hospital bed is roughly equivalent to the carbon footprint of five Canadian households.  The new method brings an unprecedented level of comprehensiveness and detail to hospital ...

The early treatment of obesity in children is effective in both the short and long term, researchers from Karolinska Institutet report in a study published in The International Journal of Obesity. The researchers followed over 170 young children in Sweden who had received treatment for diagnosed obesity. The children were recruited to the randomised controlled study when they were between four and six years old via children’s clinics in Region Stockholm.  The children and their parents were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions: standard treatment, parental support group, or parental support group with follow-up telephone ...

In a sign that exposure to certain endocrine-disrupting chemicals may be playing a role in cancers of the breast, ovary, skin and uterus, researchers have found that people who developed those cancers have significantly higher levels of these chemicals in their bodies. While it does not prove that exposure to chemicals like PFAS (per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances) and phenols (including BPA) led to these cancer diagnoses, it is a strong signal that they may be playing a role and should be studied further. The study showed that particularly for women, higher ...

Museums and Societal Collapse: The Museum as Lifeboat presents evidence and theories around collapse and extinction, while locating the responsibility of museums in our changing world   Stressors like climate trauma, corporate deceit and political incompetence signal the threat of societal collapse, a new book asserts. This claim lays the foundation for exploring arguments of ‘collapsology’ in new work by Robert R. Janes Ph.D., Museums and Societal Collapse: The Museum as Lifeboat. The book also contends with the unique role that can be played by museums during a mounting climate crisis. “Social ...

(18 September 2023, Athens, Greece) A novel study has shown that Senolytics, a new class of drugs, have the potential to prevent the transfer of senescence*, a key mechanism of ageing, and the associated physical and cognitive impairments in recipients of older donor organs. 1 The pioneering research, presented today at the European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT) Congress 2023, opens promising avenues for expanding the organ donor pool and enhancing patient outcomes. By transplanting older donor organs into younger ...

Barcelona, Spain: If doctors in hospital emergency departments are trained to carry out ultrasound on patients with suspected deep vein thrombosis (DVT), they can nearly halve the time the patients spend in these departments.   Dr Ossi Hannula, an emergency medicine specialist at the Wellbeing Services County of Central Finland, Jyväskylä, Finland, who presented the findings at the European Emergency Medicine Congress today (Monday), said his findings could help to reduce overcrowding in emergency departments ...

Imagine coming-to, jaws gripping the top of a swaying blade of grass, unaware of how you got there. That's the reality for ants infected with the lancet liver fluke, a tiny parasitic flatworm. Liver flukes have a complicated, almost insanely conceived life cycle, which begins with the hijacking of the ant’s brain. The unsuspecting ant climbs up and clamps its powerful jaws onto the top of a blade of grass, making it more likely to be eaten by grazers such as cattle and deer. Researchers from the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Plant ...

(17 September 2023, Athens, Greece) New research, presented today at the European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT) Congress 2023, demonstrates that neonatal* kidney transplantation can offer a ‘game-changing’ solution to the pressing organ shortage crisis. 1 To assess the feasibility of neonatal organ donation, researchers analysed neonatal mortality in the United States and the long-term development of these kidneys after transplantation as well as the ethical and social considerations surrounding the procedure. 1 The study revealed that out of the 21,000 infants who lost their lives ...

(17 September 2023, Athens, Greece) Islet transplantation significantly reduces the risk of transplantation failure and enhances life expectancy in individuals with type 1 diabetes who undergo kidney transplantation, a new study has revealed. 1 This breakthrough research, presented today at the European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT) Congress 2023, compared the long-term outcomes of patients with type 1 diabetes who underwent kidney transplantation and received an islet transplantation*, with patients who underwent kidney transplantation and then managed their diabetes with insulin ...

In a recent article published in Volume 3 of the journal Psychoradiology, researchers from Northwestern Polytechnical University have unveiled the groundbreaking "Attention-CensNet" (A-CensNet), a fusion model that predicts cognitive scores by amalgamating movie-watching functional magnetic resonance imaging (mfMRI) and eye-tracking data. In this model, participants serve as nodes, mfMRI data are translated into node features, and eye-tracking details forge the connections between participants, creating graph edges. By employing ...

Fatty liver disease is a condition characterised by a build-up of fat in the liver and is the most common chronic liver disease that affects over one billion people. Over time, this can lead to complications including cirrhosis, liver failure, liver cancer, and heart health issues. The disease is now known as metabolic (dysfunction) associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD). This is because the disease is now understood to be linked to metabolic factors, such as obesity, insulin resistance, and diabetes. MAFLD is a multisystem disorder with a heterogeneous disease course and outcomes. This means that it can affect multiple organs, and the course of the disease can vary from person ...