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Medicine9 Sep 2023

More cases of breast cancer detected with the help of AI

One radiologist supported by AI detected more cases of breast cancer in screening mammography than two radiologists working together, reports the ScreenTrustCAD study from Karolinska Institutet in The Lancet Digital Health. The researchers say that AI is now ready to be implemented in breast cancer screening. For over 30 years, screening mammography has been an important key in reducing breast cancer mortality rates. However, challenges include a lack of radiologists and that not all cancers are detected. Several retrospective studies have shown that artificial ...

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Medicine9 Sep 2023

Mayo Clinic study reveals proton beam therapy may shorten breast cancer treatment

ROCHESTER, Minn. — In a randomized trial, published in The Lancet Oncology, Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers uncover evidence supporting a shorter treatment time for breast cancer patients. The study compared two separate dosing schedules of pencil-beam scanning proton therapy, the most advanced type of proton therapy known for its precision in targeting cancer cells while preserving healthy tissue to reduce the risk of side effects. Survival rates for breast cancer continue to improve due to advances in diagnosis and treatment, leading to increasing emphasis on reducing the long-term ...

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Environment9 Sep 2023

Study reveals human destruction of global floodplains

A University of Texas at Arlington hydrologist’s study in the Nature journal Scientific Data provides the first-ever global estimate of human destruction of natural floodplains. The study can help guide future development in a way that can restore and conserve vital floodplain habitats that are critical to wildlife, water quality and reducing flood risk for people. Adnan Rajib, a UT Arlington assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, was the lead author on the published study, “Human Alterations of the Global Floodplains.” His doctoral student, Qianjin Zheng, played a significant ...

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Environment8 Sep 2023

MSU research shows table salt could be the secret ingredient for better chemical recycling

Images Researchers at Michigan State University have shown that table salt outperforms other expensive catalysts being explored for the chemical recycling of polyolefin polymers, which account for 60% of plastic waste. The research, published in the journal Advanced Sustainable Systems, shows that sodium chloride could provide a safe, inexpensive and reusable way to make plastics more recyclable. The team also showed that table salt and other catalysts could be used in the recycling of metallized plastic films — like ...

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Medicine8 Sep 2023

RESEARCH ALERT: City of Hope scientists identify new therapeutic target for metastatic cancer

FINDINGS In a recent study led by Lei Jiang, Ph.D., an assistant professor of molecular and cellular endocrinology, a team of researchers from City of Hope and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, found a potential new target for treating patients with metastatic cancer. Their findings were published in the August 29 issue of the journal Cell Reports. The goal of the team’s study was to elucidate the role of reductive carboxylation in redox metabolism, a process believed to be important for metastatic cancer. Reductive carboxylation is best known as a metabolic pathway that provides a molecule called acetyl-CoA so that it can be turned into lipids, which ...

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Medicine8 Sep 2023

McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics researchers awarded $3.4M NIH grant to understand link between chronic health conditions and Alzheimer's disease

A three-year, $3.4 million grant to investigate how Alzheimer’s disease is connected to multiple chronic diseases has been awarded to UTHealth Houston researchers by the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health. To study this, a team led by Xiaoqian Jiang, PhD, principal investigator and professor and chair in the Department of Health Data Science and Artificial Intelligence with McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth Houston, will build risk trajectory maps for patients using clinical data and electronic health records. Specifically, they will develop electronic health records ...

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Medicine8 Sep 2023

SwiftPharma and the Population Council pursue agreement to manufacture Griffithsin needed for the development of a fast-dissolving insert for protection against HIV

September 8, 2023 – SwiftPharma, a Belgium-based manufacturer, and the Population Council, a global nonprofit research organization, have signed a Manufacturing Master Service Agreement for the plant-based manufacture of Griffithsin to further the Council’s development of a Griffithsin fast-dissolving vaginal insert for protection against HIV. The Population Council has been developing a non-antiretroviral HIV-prevention method containing Griffithsin (GRFT) in a fast-dissolving insert (FDI). This Griffithsin FDI is an on-demand, user-controlled, portable prevention technology in early development ...

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Medicine8 Sep 2023

What defines a safety-net hospital?

Safety-net hospitals have a common mission to provide care for Medicaid beneficiaries and those who are uninsured, but there’s no universal definition for these hospitals—complicating efforts to allocate funding. In a new analysis published in JAMA Network Open and led by researchers at the NYU School of Global Public Health, the research team looked at five established definitions for safety-net hospitals and found that different criteria captured varying hospitals and characteristics. As a result, when the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) use one definition ...

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Environment8 Sep 2023

Heatwaves hitting Antarctica too

The world saw another year full of extreme weather events resulting from climate change in 2022, from intense storms to soaring temperatures and rising sea levels. Antarctica was no exception, according to new research published this week. In the 33rd annual State of the Climate report, an international assessment of the global climate published Sept. 6 in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, CU Boulder researchers report that the planet’s coldest and driest continent experienced both an unprecedented heatwave and extreme precipitation last year. “My hope is that the public starts to see both the fragility and complexity of these ...

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Science8 Sep 2023

These worms have rhythm

There’s a rhythm to developing life. Growing from a tiny cell cluster into an adult organism takes precise timing and control. The right genes must turn on at the right time, for the right duration, and in the correct order. Losing the rhythm can lead to diseases like cancer. So, what keeps every gene on beat? Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor Christopher Hammell has found that in the worm C. elegans, this genetic orchestra has no single conductor. Instead, a quartet of molecules works in concert to time each developmental stage. Hammell says this process shares some similarities with the circadian clocks that control human ...

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Medicine8 Sep 2023

Sleep-wake therapy gives new hope for teens with depression

Sleep-Wake Therapy Gives New Hope for Teens with Depression Promoting healthy sleep in teen night owls brings adolescents’ biology and school demands in alignment. School systems aren’t built for kids who fall asleep and wake up late, the so-called “night owls,” which may help explain why this group of teens is more prone to depression. Now, researchers at UC San Francisco have found a way to help these kids adjust to their natural sleep-cycle rhythms while still fulfilling their school responsibilities. The findings are a welcome sign for adolescents with ...

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Environment8 Sep 2023

Study explores an underappreciated way warmer temperatures will impact ecosystems: Decomposition

Our world is changing, and warming temperatures will alter our natural ecosystems. Some of these changes will be straightforward, like animal ranges creeping northward as they strive to maintain their ideal temperatures. But other changes will be more complicated, as warming sets off complex chain reactions that reverberate through these systems. An important process in ecosystems is the decomposition of plant litter, in which dead plant material is broken down by animals, fungi, and microbes, making its nutrients accessible to the next generation of plants. How quickly this breakdown happens — the decomposition ...

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Science8 Sep 2023

UMBC team of data scientists named a tools competition winner

Baltimore – A team of four data scientists from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, was named today as one of 32 winners of the Tools Competition, one of the largest education technology (edtech) competitions in the world that awarded more than $4 million to winners this year. The team was a winner in the DARPA AI Tools for Adult Learning opportunity, which sought artificial intelligence-powered tools to help adults learn complex topics necessary for the current and future national security workforce (e.g., AI engineering ...

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Science8 Sep 2023

Synchrotron studies change the composition of the Earth’s core

In work published in Science Advances, a team of researchers have determined a new pressure scale, which is critical for understanding the Earth’s composition. Using x-rays from a uniquely powerful spectrometer at RIKEN’s SPring-8 Center they avoided some of the large approximations of previous work, discovering that the previous scale overestimated pressure by more than 20% at 230 gigapascals (2.3 million atmospheres) - a pressure reached in Earth’s core. This is similar to someone running a marathon that they thought was 42 kilometers, but finding they had only really run 34 kilometers. While 20% might seem like a modest correction, it has big implications. An accurate ...

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Medicine8 Sep 2023

Applications now open for early-career Latin American science journalists to receive EurekAlert! Fellowships and attend the AAAS Annual Meeting

The EurekAlert! Fellowships for International Science Reporters are back and now accepting applications from early-career Latin American science journalists. Two fellows will be selected to receive travel funding from EurekAlert! to attend the 2024 AAAS Annual Meeting, taking place February 15-17, 2024 in Denver, Colorado. Learn more about who is eligible and how to apply on our website. The application deadline is October 5, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. US Eastern Time. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) ...

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Science8 Sep 2023

British sex lives revealed in new study

A new study published today shows the number of sexual partners we have changes as we age – and there are some surprising results. Researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA), in collaboration with King’s College London and University College London, surveyed more than 5,000 people aged 18 years and older during the 2022 mpox (previously known as “monkeypox”) outbreak. The team wanted to better understand how sexual behaviours change with age, so that mathematical models of sexually transmitted infections can be made more accurate. Key findings included in the paper, published today ...

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Science8 Sep 2023

How trees influence cloud formation

As part of the international CLOUD project at the nuclear research centre CERN, researchers at PSI have identified so-called sesquiterpenes – gaseous hydrocarbons that are released by plants – as being a major factor in cloud formation. This finding could reduce uncertainties in climate models and help make more accurate predictions. The study has now been published in the journal Science Advances. According to the latest projections of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the global climate will be 1.5 to 4.4 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels by 2100. This figure is based on various scenarios describing how anthropogenic ...

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Technology8 Sep 2023

Rice helps lead national quantum computing research efforts

HOUSTON – (Sept. 8, 2023) A team of Rice University researchers have won a 4-year, $1.2 million grant from the Department of Energy (DOE) to evaluate the strengths and limitations of different physical systems used to build quantum computers. Nai-Hui Chia, Kaden Hazzard and Kevin Slagle will use theory, numerical simulations and quantum hardware-run algorithms to provide a framework for comparing the viability and computational potential of different approaches to building quantum computers to help achieve near-term advances in quantum computing. Their project is one of six selected by the DOE “to improve our understanding of whether, when and how quantum ...

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Medicine8 Sep 2023

Medical Care publishes article collection on integrating evidence-based programs into clinical practice

September 8, 2023 — As part of its partnership with the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), Medical Care has published its first PCORI-sponsored article collection, which provides specific information about the costs that healthcare systems can expect to incur in promoting the uptake of specific evidence-based programs. Medical Care, https://journals.lww.com/lww-medicalcare/pages/default.aspxthe official journal of the Medical Care Section of the American Public Health Association, is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer. In the September issue, five project teams that received Implementation Award funding from PCORI ...

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Medicine8 Sep 2023

Exiting the pandemic together: achieving global immunity and equity

“While vaccination has been successful for the general population, it is crucial not to overlook the needs of immunocompromised individuals.” BUFFALO, NY- September 8, 2023 – A new editorial paper was published in Oncoscience (Volume 10) on September 1, 2023, entitled, “Exiting the pandemic together: achieving global immunity and equity.” In this new editorial, researchers Yuxin Ying, Jola Bytyci and Lennard YW Lee from Oxford Medical School discuss their recent investigation into the effectiveness of ...

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Medicine8 Sep 2023

Bladder transplantation in humans? Initial studies to develop technique

September 8, 2023 – A series of pre-clinical studies provide important first steps in developing techniques of robotic bladder transplantation in humans, as reported in the October issue of The Journal of Urology®, an Official Journal of the American Urological Association (AUA). The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer. "Our study is the first report of bladder auto-transplantation in heart-beating, brain-dead human research donors as a necessary preparatory step toward clinical bladder transplantation in living patients," comments Inderbir S. Gill, MD, of Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Preclinical ...

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Technology8 Sep 2023

New program to connect entrepreneurs with national laboratory-developed technologies

Oak Ridge National Laboratory has launched a new entrepreneurial start-up program, Safari, as an addition to the Department of Energy Office of Technology Transitions Practices to Accelerate the Commercialization of Technologies, or PACT, program. Safari seeks to connect post-exit entrepreneurs with commercially relevant technologies developed by world-leading scientific experts, which could provide the basis for a new business. A post-exit or serial entrepreneur has established and sold at least one company. “An experienced entrepreneur is likely to succeed in subsequent business ventures,” said Jennifer ...

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Science8 Sep 2023

A guide to Big Team Science creates a blueprint for research collaboration on a large scale

Scientific research depends on collaboration between researchers and institutions. But over the past decade, there has been a surge of large-scale research projects involving extraordinarily large numbers of researchers, from dozens to hundreds, all working on a common project. Examples of this trend include ManyBabies, centred on infant cognition and development, and ManyManys, focused on comparative cognition and behaviour across animal taxa. These kinds of projects, known as big team science (BTS), benefit from pooled human and material ...

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Medicine8 Sep 2023

Penn Medicine research uncovers brain-blood barrier's role in governing ant behavior

PHILADELPHIA— The blood-brain barrier (BBB) has been found to play a significant role in controlling behavior critical to how ant colonies function, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The implications of this research on the intricate mechanisms behind ant behavior go beyond the world of ants. The findings, published this week in Cell, hint at similar mechanisms at play in other species, including mammals. In ants, along with other animals, the BBB consists of tightly locked cells that protect the brain from germs and other harmful substances. The protective barrier plays a key role in how the brain and ...

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Medicine8 Sep 2023

Using smart bioelectronic devices to capture and release tumor cells

Metastasis is the leading cause of death in cancer, occurring when a cell leaves the primary tumour, passes into the bloodstream and lymphatic system and reaches distant organs. Non-invasive collection of these circulating tumour cells is essential for the study of cell biology, the diagnosis and prognosis in cancer research, and drug development. As a general rule, the concentration of cancer cells found in blood is very small with respect to other cell types, and traditional methods of collecting them in a viable way are laborious. “We wanted to come up with a device capable ...

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