Nicotine e-cigarettes and two prescription medications that curb symptoms of withdrawal are the most effective stop-smoking aids, according to a comprehensive, multinational review by a team of scientists, including a University of Massachusetts Amherst public health and health policy researcher. Dual forms of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), such as combining a patch with gum or a lozenge, were found to be nearly as effective.  Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable disease and death worldwide, and many people who want to quit smoking find it very difficult, due to the addictive nature of nicotine. The new study’s ...

In what’s known as the cluster effect, industries boom when similar businesses share a single locale. In San Francisco, there’s Silicon Valley. For cutting-edge fashion and media, there’s New York City. And according to a new report from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, when it comes to innovation in food technology, Boston has become a bona fide magnet. But what exactly is food technology, or food tech for short, and how can it solve the current food system’s most dire dilemmas? The report from the Food and Nutrition ...

Dinosaurs have quite the reputation for being the largest, fiercest predators in life’s history. Yet, 40 million years before dinosaurs ruled, Pampaphoneus biccai dominated South America as the biggest and most bloodthirsty meat eater of its time. In a new study published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, an international team of researchers reveal the astounding discovery of a 265-million-year-old, exquisitely preserved fossil species, Pampaphoneus biccai, found in the rural area of São Gabriel, Southern Brazil. The ...

Climate change and increases in drought and rainstorms pose serious challenges to our water management. Not only the availability of water is under pressure, but also its quality. However, according to the most recent IPCC report our current understanding of this issue is inadequate. To fill this gap, an international group of scientists has brought together a large body of research on water quality in rivers worldwide. The study published in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment shows that river water quality tends to deteriorate during extreme weather events. As these events become more frequent and severe due to climate change, ...

Research team led by Shir Filo and Prof. Aviv Mezer of the Safra Center for Brain Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (ELSC) and Dr. Tal Shahar currently, Director of the Neurosurgical Oncology Unit at the Neurosurgery Department, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, have unveiled a groundbreaking magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology that promises to revolutionize our understanding of iron homeostasis in the human brain. Their research, demonstrates the ability to non-invasively assess different molecular iron environments within the brain, shedding light on its vital role in normal brain function, aging, neurodegenerative ...

The University of Manchester will partner with the Martingale Foundation to improve postgraduate access to STEM subject through a fully funded scholarship. The University is one of three new universities chosen to partner with the Martingale Postgraduate Foundation to support passionate and talented students facing financial barriers to pursue postgraduate degrees at leading research institutions in the UK. A Martingale Scholar will receive a fully funded scholarship to pursue a master's degree in Mathematics at ...

early one in three people exposed to SARS-CoV2 is infected, and as many as two in five with the Omicron variant. In the case of immunity — conferred by vaccination, infection or a combination of the two — this rate drops to one in ten. However, immunity disappears within a few months, confirms a team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), after revisiting epidemiological data collected in Geneva. While protection following infection appears to be slightly greater than after vaccination — albeit at the risk of potentially severe ...

How many relatives do Swedes have? And at what age is the family the largest? Researchers in demography at Stockholm University have found out in a new study. Relatives often play an important role in people’s lives. Family members such as cousins, grandparents and grandchildren form part of an individual’s social network and can provide significant support, ranging from child-rearing to elderly care to financial assistance. In a new study in the journal Demography, Martin Kolk and a group of researchers at Stockholm University have documented for the first time how many relatives Swedes have. “There has been a lack of knowledge about how many kin people have in modern ...

A ground-breaking study by researchers from the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has revealed crucial insights into the role of the histone methyltransferase NSD2 and its epigenetic target PKCα in causing t(4;14) translocated multiple myeloma (MM), a high-risk subtype of blood cancer, to be more aggressive and resistant to treatment. The study was led by Professor Wee Joo Chng, Senior Principal Investigator at CSI Singapore, and Dr Phyllis Chong Shu Yun, Senior Research Fellow at CSI Singapore. The research team discovered that NSD2 triggers elevated glycolysis through the ...

It is said that there is waste in haste, but researchers from Osaka Metropolitan University have proven that doing things rapidly does not necessarily mean working ineffectively. A research group led by Professor Hiroshi Shiigi at the Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka Metropolitan University has developed a technology that can rapidly and accurately determine the number of viable bacteria in food products electrochemically, using tetrazolium salt (MTT), a water-soluble molecule. One of the most important assessment indicators for ensuring that food is free from contamination is the number of viable bacteria. However, conventional measurement methods take up to 2 days to yield results, ...

Sixty-six percent of U.S. teachers who responded to a new, nationally representative RAND Corporation survey said their base salary was inadequate, compared with 39% of U.S. working adults. These teachers want a $17,000 increase in base pay, on average, to feel that their pay is adequate.  This equates roughly to a 27% pay increase, which is comparable to the estimated gap in pay between teachers and other similarly college-educated workers, also known as the “teacher pay penalty.” In early 2023, RAND researchers surveyed public-school teachers about how salary and work hours affect ...

The targeted use of ultrasound technology can bring about significant changes in brain function that could pave the way towards treatment of conditions such as depression, addiction, or anxiety, a new study suggests. Research by neuroscientists at the University of Plymouth explored the impacts of an emerging technique called transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS). Typically, ultrasound examinations involve diffuse broad beams of ultrasound being used to create images while leaving the target tissue unaffected. However, focusing the beams through TUS can increase the pressure in the target region and change the way ...

[Singapore, 10:05 a.m. SGT--September 12, 2023] - A unified and concentrated lung cancer advocacy program in the United States resulted in a 25 percent increase in funding to a U.S.-based lung cancer research program, according to a presentation given today at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2023 World Conference on Lung Cancer in Singapore. Lung cancer remains a major health concern, with mortality rates posing a significant challenge both globally and in the United States. The U.S. Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program/Lung Cancer Research Program (LCRP) was established in 2009 with a funding level of $20 million, but ...

[Singapore, 10:05 a.m. SGT--September 12, 2023] – A model developed by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer in 2009 to help better stage mesothelioma cases performed well, according to an independent analysis presented today at The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2023 Conference in Singapore. Pleural mesothelioma is a rare but aggressive cancer primarily caused by asbestos exposure and presents complex challenges for effective staging and prognostication. The IASLC took a significant step in 2009 by establishing an international pleural mesothelioma database aimed at enhancing staging ...

[Singapore, 10:05 a.m. SGT--September 12, 2023] - Intensity-modulated radiation therapy, or IMRT, should be utilized for locally advanced NSCLC to reduce the risk of severe pulmonary toxicity and radiation exposure to the heart, according to research presented today at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2023 World Conference on Lung Cancer in Singapore. Dr. Stephen Chun, MD Anderson in Houston, Texas, presented a comprehensive analysis of the phase III trial NRG Oncology-RTOG 0617, comparing intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) with 3D-conformal ...

[Singapore, 10:05 a.m. SGT--September 12, 2023]  - A study presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2023 World Conference on Lung Cancer revealed that key reproductive factors such as early menopause, shortened reproductive span, and early age at first birth are associated with elevated risks of lung cancer in women. Researchers from Xiangya Hospital, Changsha, Hunan, China, conducted a prospective cohort study involving 273,190 participants from the UK Biobank to delve into the links between individual reproductive ...

At the center of every galaxy is a supermassive black hole. Beyond a certain size, these become active, emitting huge amounts of radiation, and are then called quasars. It is thought these are activated by the presence of massive dark matter halos (DMH) surrounding the galaxy, directing matter towards the center, feeding the black hole. A team including researchers from the University of Tokyo have, for the first time, surveyed hundreds of ancient quasars and found this behavior is very consistent throughout history. This is surprising, as many large-scale processes show variation throughout the ...

In recent years, cancer immunotherapies, represented by immune checkpoint blockade (ICB), have been highly successful and have become an important basis for the future treatment of cancers. However, the absence of tumoral killer T cells and the complexity of tumor microenvironment can both affect the immunotherapeutic efficacy. Therefore, it is urgent to develop novel anti-tumor agents that can effectively promote effector T cell infiltration in tumors.   ADP-ribosylation factor 1 (Arf1) is a member of the Ras small GTPase family and is ...

Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) should be the preferred choice when treating patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as it reduces radiation exposure to the heart and lungs, according to researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.   Results from a long-term secondary analysis of the NRG Oncology-RTOG 0617 Phase III study, with a median follow-up of 5.2 years, revealed that patients receiving IMRT had a more than two-fold reduction in severe lung inflammation (pneumonitis) compared to those who received 3D-conformal radiotherapy ...

Published in Nature Water, the new model has major potential benefits for emergency responses, reducing flood forecasting time from hours and days to just seconds, and enabling flood behaviour to be accurately predicted at super-fast speeds as an emergency unfolds.  University of Melbourne PHD student Niels Fraehr, alongside Professor Q J Wang, Dr Wenyan Wu and Professor Rory Nathan, from the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, developed the Low-Fidelity, Spatial Analysis ...

This study is led by Dr Zhihong Lang (Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences). To develop a new bio-breeding resource for glyphosate-resistant maize, a large transgenic maize population was generated with introducing a codon-optimized glyphosate N-acetyltransferase gene, gat, and the enolpyruvyl-shikimate-3-phosphate synthase gene, gr79-epsps, into maize and a transgenic event, designated GG2, was highly resistant to glyphosate in consecutive generations of glyphosate screening. “This result is very encouraging.” Dr Lang says.   The ...

IOP Publishing (IOPP) and the Japan Society of Applied Physics (JSAP) announce that Applied Physics Express (APEX) is to become fully open access (OA). From January 2024, all articles published in APEX, the journal devoted to rapid dissemination of new findings in applied physics, will be immediately and openly accessible for anyone to read. The move reflects the increasing demand for more accessible and open science, and funders’ mandates requiring authors to publish their work in OA journals.   Making APEX open access means that authors will be ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – An Oregon State University-led collaboration of ecologists and art historians has demonstrated that landscape paintings from more than 150 years ago can advance environmental science. Researchers from OSU, the U.S. Forest Service, the University of Vermont and the Smithsonian American Art Museum used 19th-century depictions of preindustrial forests in the northeastern United States to show that historical artwork can reveal information about forests and other landscapes from eras that predate modern scientific investigation. The ...

FINDINGS UCLA-led research finds that among adult congenital heart disease (CHD) transplant recipients, single-ventricle physiology correlated with higher short-term mortality. But 10-year conditional survival was similar for biventricular and most single-ventricle CHD patients, and notably better for biventricular CHD patients compared to non-CHD heart transplant recipients.   BACKGROUND Congenital heart disease (CHD) is a heterogeneous group of structural abnormalities that can be thought of as spectrum from very severe ...

A natural compound found in the culinary spice turmeric may be as effective as omeprazole—a drug used to curb excess stomach acid—for treating indigestion symptoms, suggests the first study of its kind, published online in the journal BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine. Turmeric is derived from the root of the Curcuma longa plant. It contains a naturally active compound called curcumin thought to have anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties, and has long been used as a medicinal remedy, including ...