While both men and women have historically been accused of the malicious use of magic, only around 10–30% of suspected witches were men by the 16th and 17th centuries.*   This bias towards women is often attributed to misogyny as well as economic hard times. Now, a Cambridge historian has added another contributing factor to the mix.   Dr Philippa Carter argues that the types of employment open to women at the time came with a much higher risk of facing allegations of witchcraft, or maleficium. In a study published in the journal Gender & History, Carter uses the casebooks of Richard ...

The climate crisis is reaching unprecedented levels of urgency as global temperatures soar to record-breaking heights, with July 2023 marking another alarming milestone. United Nations Secretary-General  António Guterres  declared it a "disaster for the whole planet," emphasizing that the era of "global warming" has given way to an era of "global boiling." This alarming assessment is supported by recent findings from Professor Qingxiang Li 's team at the School of Atmospheric ...

ROCKVILLE, Md.—Even though epidemiological evidence has been controversial regarding the optimal timing of physical activity for weight management, the hours of 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. appear to be the most favorable time of day to enhance the association between daily moderate to vigorous physical activity and obesity, according to a new analysis published in Obesity, The Obesity Society’s (TOS) flagship journal. “Our study provided a novel tool to explore the diurnal pattern of physical activity and to investigate its impact on health outcomes,” said Tongyu Ma, PhD, assistant professor, Health Sciences Department, Franklin Pierce University, Rindge, ...

Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) and Research Institutes of Sweden AB (RISE) have officially entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at enhancing collaborative research in the field of national strategic technologies. The signing ceremony took place at RISE in Stockholm, Sweden on Friday, September 15, 2023.   RISE, recognized as Europe’s largest state-owned research institute, is composed of 30 private and government-funded research institutes, along with more than 130 government-designated testing agencies. It also boasts a workforce ...

New Haven, Conn. — Yale researchers have shown that placental examination resulted in the accurate pathologic determination of more than 90% of previously unexplained pregnancy losses, a discovery that they say may inform pregnancy care going forward. The findings were reported Sept. 19 in the journal Reproductive Sciences. There are approximately 5 million pregnancies per year in the United States, with 1 million ending in miscarriage (a loss occurring prior to 20 weeks of gestation) and over 20,000 ending in stillbirth at or beyond 20 ...

The Vilsmeier reagent is necessary for producing a large range of pharmaceuticals, but its unstable nature and toxic precursor phosgene are challenges for its use. A new process that efficiently produces phosgene, the Vilsmeier reagent and the desired products in one flow is poised to make the industry greener and safer. For the production of many active pharmaceutical ingredients, a chemical called Vilsmeier reagent is necessary, but it is extremely unstable. That's why it is produced on-site and on-demand wherever possible. In addition, the currently used methods for producing the ...

People who use both cannabis and tobacco have significantly higher rates of depression and anxiety than those who use either substance alone or not at all, according to a new study by UC San Francisco researchers. The study, published Sept. 13, 2023 in the online journal PLOS ONE, comes amid expanding legalization of cannabis products, resulting in more dual use with tobacco nationwide. Earlier studies relied on data collected before the legalization trend, prompting the need for a new analysis. Understanding the association between the use of both drugs and mental health ...

A new study from the Texas A&M University School of Public Health suggests that vaping increases the risk of asthma in adolescents who have never smoked conventional tobacco products. Vaping, or the use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), among adolescents has grown dramatically over the past several years. Although e-cigarettes have fewer toxins than regular cigarettes, they still contain a mixture of harmful chemicals and raise the risk of respiratory diseases. In this new study, which was published in Preventive Medicine, researchers analyzed data from a national survey of youth to ...

Researchers at Lund University are publishing their findings in the prestigious journal Nature Aging. The marker in question is called DOPA decarboxylase (DCC). In the current study, DCC was found to be elevated in individuals with Parkinson's disease as well as in people with other diseases that result in dopamine deficiency in the brain. However, the marker was normal in other brain diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. The researchers even noticed that DCC was elevated in individuals with Parkinson's many years before they developed any symptoms. ”We ...

Images EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State University researchers received a $12 million, four-year federal grant from the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, or IARPA, under its Biometric Recognition and Identification at Altitude and Range, or BRIAR, program. The IARPA BRIAR program is a 48-month effort to deliver end-to-end software systems capable of detecting individuals at severe imaging conditions, extracting biometric signatures from the whole-body (such as an individual’s gait and/or body shape) and face, and fusing biometric information for robust multi-modal matching. The MSU project ...

When it comes to weight loss, nuts can get a bad rap – while they’re high in protein, they’re also high in fats, and this often deters those looking to shed a few kilos. But new research from the University of South Australia shows that you can eat almonds and lose weight too.   In the largest study of its kind, researchers found that including almonds in an energy restricted diet not only helped people to lose weight, but also improved their cardiometabolic health.   Examining the effects of energy restricted diets supplemented with Californian almonds or with carbohydrate- rich snacks, researchers found that both diets ...

Barcelona, Spain: People who come to emergency departments with alcohol-related diseases or conditions are more likely to make return visits and to die in the following 20 years, than people who come to emergency departments for other reasons, according to new research. For many, this means they may die in their 40s or 50s.   Professor Drew Richardson told the European Emergency Medicine Congress that he and his colleagues had followed 194 patients who had alcohol-related diagnoses when they arrived in the emergency department of The Canberra Hospital ...

PITTSBURGH—Today, William Sanders, dean of the College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, participated in a briefing at the United Nations. He was joined by Carnegie Mellon University Africa student Choukouriyah Arinloye. The event, “Artificial Intelligence for Accelerating Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: Addressing Society’s Greatest Challenges,” was held as part of the 78th United Nations General Assembly and was hosted by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The event ...

MIAMI, FLORIDA (Sept. 18, 2023) – Thoracic surgeons and researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine found that increasing numbers of patients undergoing cancer-removal lung surgery by “anatomic lung resections” – lobectomies or segmentectomies – are able to go home safely and without complications one day after the operation, thanks to growing rates of robot-assisted surgeries and improvements in patient-centered care protocols. However, the research team found, patients of lower socioeconomic status were considerably ...

A new study finds that creating physical gaps in the forest canopy give eastern hemlocks more access to resources and help those trees withstand infestation by an invasive insect. The approach adds another tool to the toolkit that foresters can use to protect these trees. Eastern hemlocks are an ecologically important tree species found from eastern Canada to the Great Lakes states and south along the entire Appalachian mountain range. The hemlock woolly adelgid – an invasive insect that was introduced to North America 70 years ago and has spread along the East Coast – can kill a hemlock tree in as little as four years. “An ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, September 18, 2023                           Contact: Jillian McKoy, jpmckoy@bu.edu Michael Saunders, msaunder@bu.edu ## Trump's Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric, Policies Contributed to Decline in Preventive Healthcare Visits among Children of Immigrants  A new study shows that well-child visits for children with immigrant mothers ...

Urbana-Champaign, Illinois/Austin, Texas—[Sept. 18]—Samsung Austin Semiconductor is partnering with The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) to continue building the talent pipeline needed to support the growing semiconductor ecosystem throughout the United States. Samsung Austin Semiconductor is announcing a $1 million contribution per year to Grainger Engineering as part of its 5-star workforce development plan to provide support to engineering students who are interested ...

As announced by the Department of Defense today, The University of Texas at Dallas will receive $30 million over three years from the DOD to develop and commercialize new battery technologies and manufacturing processes, enhance the domestic availability of critical raw materials, and train high-quality workers for jobs in an expanding battery energy storage workforce. The award, which creates a prototype Energy Storage Systems Campus, is the largest allocation from a federal agency that the University has received to date. The Energy Storage Systems Campus will leverage and stimulate over $200 million in private capital. Dr. Kyeongjae ...

Below please find a summary of a new article that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summary is not intended to substitute for the full article as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of the organization they represent. ---------------------------- ACP issues updated Rapid, Living Practice Points on treating COVID-19 patients in outpatient settings Article: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M23-1636  Evidence ...

Discovery from the lab of Youyang Zhao, PhD, from Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago offers promising treatment approaches for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in the elderly that can be caused by severe COVID-19, pneumonia, flu or sepsis. Currently there are no pharmacological or cell-based treatments for ARDS. Dr. Zhao’s research established that a gene called FOXM1 is important in the repair of blood vessel through regeneration of endothelial cells, which line the vessels of the lung. He found that aging impairs this gene’s expression, ...

Could future opioid overdoses, fatalities and other harms of opioid addiction be prevented if hospital emergency departments made better use of effective medications for opioid addiction? A team of University of Michigan researchers thinks so.  Led by Thuy Nguyen of U-M's School of Public Health, the researchers analyzed national Medicaid claims data of patients ages 12 to 64 treated at U.S. emergency departments for opioid overdoses in 2018. They focused on ED visits for opioid overdose and the rate of initiation of FDA-approved medications for opioid addiction, including buprenorphine, methadone and extended release naltrexone.  The ...

Among adults with chronic kidney disease (CKD) enrolled in the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort (CRIC), young age, Black race, and low levels of education and income were associated with lower likelihood of getting an annual flu shot. Identifying risk factors for not receiving a flu vaccine (“non-vaccination”) in people living with kidney disease, who are at risk of flu and its complications, could inform strategies for improving vaccine uptake. In this study published in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases (AJKD), researchers led by Junichi Ishigami examined whether demographic factors, social ...

In recent years, cancer researchers have hailed the arrival of chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR T) therapy, which has delivered promising results, transforming the fight against various forms of cancer. The process involves modifying patients’ T-cells to target cancer cells, resulting in remarkable success rates for previously intractable forms of cancer. Six CAR T cell therapies have secured FDA approval, and several more are in the pipeline. However, these therapies come with severe and potentially lethal side effects, namely cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and neurotoxicity. These drawbacks manifest as a range of symptoms—from high fever and vomiting to multiple ...

EMBARGOED: September 18, 2023 4PM EST CONTACT:  Nicole Oliverio, nicole_oliverio@dfci.harvard.edu, 617-257-0454 Boston – An innovative phase 2 clinical trial led by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in collaboration with 10 major brain tumor centers around the country and designed to find new potential treatments for glioblastoma has reported initial results in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. While none of the three therapeutics tested so far improved overall survival of patients, this adaptive platform trial, the first of its kind in neuro-oncology, has the potential to rapidly and efficiently identify therapies that ...

A new study looks at the impact of learning environments on the academic success of racialized students. Compared to their peers, these students feel they have less control in their academic environment, less confidence and self-efficacy in their academic abilities, and weaker connections to other students and professors. The University of Ottawa study underscores that higher education institutions must recognize and address the specific needs of their racialized student communities and create inclusive learning environments that better meet these needs. Failing to do so could affect the overall psychological well-being and academic performance ...