You may know it as an aromatic spice to add flavor to your dishes or as a soothing herbal remedy to use for upset stomachs, but researchers from Osaka Metropolitan University have uncovered promising findings that Kencur, a tropical plant in the ginger family native to Southeast Asia, possesses anti-cancer effects. Led by Associate Professor Akiko Kojima of the Graduate School of Human Life and Ecology, the researchers demonstrated that Kencur extract and its main active component, ethyl p-methoxycinnamate (EMC), significantly suppressed cancer cell growth at the cellular and animal levels. While previous studies on EMC indicated its anti-cancer potential by decreasing the expression ...

A new type of versatile economical photocatalyst that harnesses the visible portion of the sunlight spectrum has been developed by researchers from the University of Johannesburg. It is simple to manufacture. Currently, economical photocatalysts only ‘use’ the UV spectrum of sunlight. The new photocatalyst harnesses about a third of the visible light spectrum. The extremely stable, powder-form three-component photocatalyst is built from graphitic carbon (89% of mass), a modified calixarene (10%) and a niobium-containing MXene (1%). Researchers at the University of Johannesburg have developed a new type of photocatalyst that harnesses the visible ...

A research team led by Dr. Jung-dae Kwon from the Department of Energy & Electronic Materials at the Korea Institute of Materials Science(KIMS) has succeeded in realizing the world's first transparent thin-film solar cell on a flexible substrate that exhibits different reflective colours and does not significantly reduce solar cell's efficiency. KIMS is a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT. This is a technology that achieves reflective colour only a single material by periodically incorporating hydrogen into zinc oxide material doped with aluminium, which is a transparent electrode, to induce a refractive index difference. ...

New guidance aimed at helping standardize community overdose response and take-home naloxone kits across Canada is published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.230128. The guidance is an important document to optimize the effectiveness of take-home naloxone to save lives. The guidance was developed by a panel of experts, including people with lived experience of drug use and overdose response, front-line and harm-reduction workers, public health professionals, clinicians and academics with expertise in harm reduction across Canada. ...

Indigenous females living "off reserve" face many disparities in health care access, use and unmet needs, found new research in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.221407. The study included 2902 First Nations, 2345 Métis, 742 Inuit and 74 760 non-Indigenous females of reproductive age (aged 15–55 years) obtained from the Canadian Community Health Survey from 2015 to 2020, including 4 months during the COVID-19 pandemic. "We found that ...

A team of researchers is designing novel systems to capture water vapour in the air and turn it into liquid. University of Waterloo professor Michael Tam and his PhD students Yi Wang and Weinan Zhao have developed sponges or membranes with a large surface area that continually capture moisture from their surrounding environment.  Traditionally, fresh water for consumption is collected from rivers, lakes, groundwater, and oceans (with treatment). The current technologies Dr. Tam is developing are inspired by nature to harvest water from alternative sources as the world is facing ...

Peer reviewed – observational study - humans Researchers at the University of East Anglia have developed a new way of identifying patients at risk of an irregular heartbeat, known as ‘atrial fibrillation’. While not life threatening, the condition increases people’s risk of having a transient ischaemic attack (TIA) or stroke by up to five times. A new study, published today, reveals four specific factors that can predict which patients will have atrial fibrillation. These include older age, higher diastolic blood pressure and problems with both the coordination ...

The UK’s brightest pupils’ chances of getting top GCSE grades are actually lower in grammar schools than in comprehensives, according to a major new piece of research.  The study, which was based on test results and other information from all pupils in England, challenges the common belief that high achievers do better in more academic schools.  Findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Educational Review, demonstrate those with the highest scores at age 11 were less likely to achieve ...

A new New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics paper out today describes the 266 fossil species as one of the richest and most diverse groups of three-million-year-old fauna ever found in New Zealand. At least ten previously unknown species will be described and named in future research. Fossil treasure trove from Auckland’s Mangere Wastewater Treatment Plant In 2020, when Auckland’s Watercare were excavating two huge vertical shafts for a major upgrade of the major pipeline that brings raw sewage for treatment from the central city they dug through an ancient shell bed. Auckland paleontologist Bruce Hayward likened ...

Investigators from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai are one step closer to helping individuals catch a sudden cardiac arrest before it happens, thanks to a study published today in the peer-reviewed journal Lancet Digital Health. The study, led by sudden cardiac arrest expert Sumeet Chugh, MD, found that 50% of individuals who experienced a sudden cardiac arrest also experienced a telling symptom 24 hours before their loss of heart function. Smidt Heart Institute investigators also learned that this warning symptom was different for women than it was for men. For women, the most prominent symptom of an impending sudden cardiac ...

Tokyo, Japan – Scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University and other institutes have studied new satellite data showing the diameter of rain droplets and the distribution of heavy ice in the atmosphere worldwide. They focused on the Asian monsoon region, finding larger droplets and more heavy ice precipitation on land before the actual monsoon season. Their findings shed new light on the features of the pre-monsoon season, such as more intense precipitation and lightning, potentially informing better weather prediction. As adverse rainfall events rock the world, scientists are trying to understand the mechanism ...

A microscopic crack grew in a very small piece of platinum when placed under repetitive stretching. The experiment, designed to study fatigue crack growth, continued as predicted for a while before something unexpected happened. The crack stopped growing and instead began to get shorter, effectively “healing” itself. A group of researchers at Sandia National Laboratories made this surprising observation while conducting fracture experiments on nanocrystalline metals. The findings were recently published in the journal Nature. It ...

The National Institutes of Health and the higher education non-profit VentureWell have selected 10 winners and five honorable mentions of the Design by Biomedical Undergraduate Teams (DEBUT) Challenge, who are set to receive prizes totaling $145,000. The awards will be presented to the winning teams during the annual Biomedical Engineering Society conference held Oct. 11-14, 2023. Now in its 12th year, the DEBUT Challenge calls on teams of undergraduate students to produce technological ...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – University of Louisville researchers have received $11.7 million to study microorganisms throughout the body, including the mouth. What they find could lead to better understanding and treatment of a range of chronic conditions. The five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is an extension of a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grant awarded in 2018 to study the connection between those microorganisms — such as bacteria, yeasts, fungi, viruses and protozoans — and disease. The work could lead to discoveries in, among others, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, diabetes, periodontitis ...

North Carolina State University researchers found in a new study that while many tourists visiting a mountain destination in southern Mexico wouldn’t change their near-term plans to visit due to climate change, more than two-thirds said they would or might change their plans by 2060 under more drastically changed conditions. In addition, researchers also found that 70% of those surveyed would change the length of their stay in response to climate change by 2060, and some indicated they’d shift the timing of their visit. The findings, published in a ...

University of Houston, the Energy University, is proud to introduce the inaugural cohort of UH-Chevron Energy Graduate Fellows – eight graduate students who are actively involved in innovative energy-related research across the UH campus. Funded by Chevron, the program supports graduate students’ research efforts through a one-year, $12,000 fellowship which includes mentoring by faculty experts and the opportunity to engage with subject matter experts at Chevron. “We love that Chevron is sponsoring this group of fellows because it’s a fantastic way for us to get involved with the students who are working on some of the biggest problems ...

This study integrates an intersectional framework with data on 15,000 U.S. ninth graders from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 to investigate differences in ninth-grade math course placement at the intersection of adolescents’ learning disability status, race, and socioeconomic status (SES). Descriptive results support an increased liability perspective, with the negative relationship between a learning disability and math course placement larger for adolescents more privileged in terms of their ...

HOUSTON (Aug. 25, 2023) — The Texas Heart Institute recently received a five-year, $2 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health to advance the technology supporting development of transplantable bioartificial hearts. The project, funded by a Stephen I. Katz Early Stage Investigator Research Project Grant, will be led by Camila Hochman-Mendez, MSc, PhD, director of Regenerative Medicine Research and the Biorepository and Biospecimen Profiling Core Laboratory. The interdisciplinary research team includes ...

The American Heart Association’s (AHA) Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences has selected Juhyun Lee, assistant professor in the Bioengineering Department at The University of Texas at Arlington, as a fellow. “It is an honor to be elected a fellow of the American Heart Association and to have my work to improve basic cardiovascular science through high-resolution imaging system development and biomechanical analysis of heart development recognized as a biomedical engineer,” Lee said. Lee is the fifth AHA fellow in the Bioengineering Department, joining Yi Hong, Jun Liao, Kytai Nguyen and Liping Tang. He received an AHA Early ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced 106 awards totaling $126 million in research and development grants for 90 different small businesses whose projects will address multiple mission areas across the Department, including clean energy and decarbonization, cybersecurity and grid reliability, fusion energy, and nuclear nonproliferation. Small businesses are the backbone of the nation’s economy, employing nearly half of all private-sector workers in the United States, and will play a major role in decarbonizing the ...

CHAPEL HILL, NC – Anxiety remains one of the most diagnosed clinical symptoms in adolescence and is a potent precursor to and exacerbator of substance use disorder. In their new $3.8-million study entitled “Neurobiological Pathways from Anxiety Symptomology in Early Adolescence to Risk for Adverse Patterns of Substance Use” funded through the National Institute on Drug Abuse, UNC School of Medicine and Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill researchers will examine the neural and physiological mechanisms associated with emergence ...

Imagine a computer that is not slowed down by antivirus software. A computer that does not require constant updates that usually includes a subscription cost. What if malicious software and viruses – or malware – detection could simply be built into the hardware of future computers? Dr. Marcus Botacin, a visiting assistant professor in the computer science and engineering department at Texas A&M University, recently received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop such a concept. “This is my first grant application ever,” Botacin said. “This grant includes funding for two Ph.D. students that will be my first graduate students, and ...

Nansi Boghossian and Melissa Nolan, both associate professors in the Arnold School’s Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, have been awarded more than $600K each from The Duke Endowment to lead projects that improve access to health care for underserved populations. Their projects align with the Endowment’s goals to provide essential health care services, particularly for children and families, to residents of the Carolinas. “To truly achieve health for all, we must develop and test innovative yet practical ...

Ohio residents who vote against tax renewals for parks and recreation spending could be costing themselves a significant amount of wealth in the form of their homes' value, a University of Cincinnati economist found. David Brasington, PhD, the James C. and Caroline Kautz Chair in Political Economy and professor of economics in UC's Carl H. Lindner College of Business, studied the effect of cutting funding for the maintenance of local parks and recreational areas on housing values for a research article that was published in Journal ...

August 25, 2023 – Potentially modifiable comorbid conditions and complications have a major impact on the risks of total hip arthroplasty (THA) for people in their nineties, reports a study in The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio in partnership with Wolters Kluwer. Patients ³90 years old have higher complication and mortality rates following THA, as compared with younger patients. But while age is a significant factor, the risks associated with THA in nonagenarians ...