Experiencing the harsh sounds of skateboarding can help bridge the gulf between the joy and distaste of the noises created by the sport, a new study says. Skate sounds can also help individuals sense and feel the urban environment in new and novel ways. Skateboarders have a specialised knowledge of the texture of cities, and sharing this with the public could help to soothe conflict, according to the research. Paying attention to sound can give both sides “sonic” agency over spaces in the city. Skate sounds, are a common basis of complaint from the general public. Yet these sounds can act as a source of inspiration and joy for ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A new economic analysis has linked, for the first time, conduct problems among kindergarten students with significant costs to society in terms of crime and associated medical expenses and lost productivity when they are adults. “Providing effective, evidence-based programming designed to address behavioral problems early on has the potential to improve students’ wellbeing in the long term,” said project collaborator Damon Jones, associate research professor in the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center (PRC). “This study implies that there could be an additional benefit ...

New research published in the New England Journal of Medicine indicates that stem cell gene therapy may offer a promising, curative treatment for the painful, inherited blood disorder sickle cell disease (SCD). The findings from a new clinical trial, published August 31, add to the body of evidence supporting gene therapy as a treatment for sickle cell disease, which primarily impacts people of color. About 100,000 Americans have sickle cell disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The condition, which can cause a lifetime of pain, health complications and expenses, affects one in 365 Black babies born in the U.S. and one ...

At the atomic and subatomic scales exist behaviors that have vast potential to enhance how we see and interact with the world, by improving current technologies and potentially giving rise to new ones. The main advantage to be gained from the realm of quantum sensing is its extreme sensitivity and accuracy, able to capture the faintest of signals and measure at the smallest of scales. Now, several UC Santa Barbara researchers are poised to deploy their expertise in quantum science as part of the U.S. National Science Foundation’s (NSF) program ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Food was used as both a weapon and a tool of resistance in the Mississippi Delta during the Civil Rights Movement. Bobby J. Smith II, an African American studies professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, looked at how the Civil Rights Movement expanded to include struggles around food in his book “Food Power Politics: The Food Story of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement.” The book is the inaugural title in the Black Food Justice series by the University of North Carolina Press. Smith wrote about how white ...

A cancer diagnosis can increase the risk of infertility in young women. While consuming a healthy diet – including whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and healthy fatty acids – has been found to improve both fertility and cancer survivorship, over 90% of young adult cancer survivors don’t meet the dietary recommendations and have diets consisting of high fat and low fruit and vegetable intake. Researchers from Drexel University’s College of Nursing and Health Professions explored the barriers and ways to promote healthy diet practices among female cancer survivors with fertility challenges. Recently ...

The Earth's surface is covered by plants. They make up the majority of biomass on land and exhibit a wide range of diversity, from mosses to trees. This astounding biodiversity came into existence due to a fateful evolutionary event that happened just once: plant terrestrialization. This describes the point where one group of algae, whose modern descendants can still be studied in the lab, evolved into plants and invaded land around the world. An international group of researchers, spearheaded by a team from the University of Göttingen, generated large ...

“In summary, our group demonstrates basic principles in the early aging of mammalian oocytes.” BUFFALO, NY- August 30, 2023 – A new editorial paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 15, Issue 15, entitled, “Epigenetic aging in oocytes.” Aging-related phenotypes span many different tissues and cell types, and start to occur at different ages - a different typical age for every cell type. In their new editorial, researchers Peera Wasserzug-Pash and Michael ...

MINNEAPOLIS – People who have had a stroke called an intracerebral hemorrhage who take cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins may have a lower risk of having another stroke, especially ischemic stroke, compared to people who also had an intracerebral hemorrhage but were not taking statins, according to a new study published in the August 30, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Intracerebral hemorrhage is caused by bleeding in the brain. Ischemic stroke is caused by a blockage of blood flow to the brain and is the most common type of stroke. “Previous research has had mixed results on the risk of ...

A relatively small intervention could have a huge impact on a damaging condition that stalks children in the developing world. A new Stanford-led study shows that adding zinc to farmland soil can help prevent childhood stunting, a condition due to chronic undernutrition that is associated with poor brain development and long-lasting harmful consequences, such as reduced school performance and increased disease risks. The paper, published Aug. 21 in Scientific Reports is the first large-scale study to examine the association between children’s nutritional status or health outcomes and soil mineral availability in India, ...

“NeXT Dx incorporates a range of features and comprehensive genome variant detection methods that lead to improved disease management and possible enhanced clinical utility.”  BUFFALO, NY- August 30, 2023 – A new research paper was published in Oncotarget's Volume 14 on August 30, 2023, entitled, “Analytic validation of NeXT Dx™, a comprehensive genomic profiling assay.” In this new research paper, researchers Juan-Sebastian Saldivar, Jason Harris, Erin Ayash, Manqing Hong, Prateek Tandon, Saloni Sinha, Patricia Miranda Hebron, Erin E. Houghton, ...

Blake Meyers, a principal investigator at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and a professor of plant sciences from the University of Missouri - Columbia, has been named the new director and Novozymes Chair in Genomics at the UC Davis Genome Center. Meyers, who studies plant RNA biology, bioinformatics and functional genomics, will step into the role on March 1. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Meyers succeeds the center’s founding director Richard Michelmore, a distinguished professor in the departments of Plant Sciences, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Medical Microbiology and Immunology. Roots ...

NASA uses the International Space Station — a football field-sized spacecraft orbiting Earth — to learn more about living and working in space. For over 20 years, the space station has provided a unique platform for investigation and research in areas like biology, technology, agriculture, and more. It serves as a home for astronauts conducting experiments, including advancing NASA’s space communications capabilities.  In 2023, NASA is sending a technology demonstration known as the Integrated LCRD Low Earth Orbit User ...

A new study by researchers from Mass General Brigham further illustrates that when it comes to risk of Alzheimer’s disease, even genetically determined forms of the disease, genetics is only one piece of the puzzle. Researchers investigated the influence of genetics and educational attainment on cognitive decline by studying data from 675 people who carry a mutation that predisposes them to early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Carriers of this mutation—known as PSEN1 E280A—have a median age of 49 for onset of dementia. The team found that among ...

LAWRENCE, KANSAS — A new virtual institute established at the University of Kansas School of Engineering will train the next generation of military and civilian leaders to better combat the growing threat of cyberattacks and protect the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS). KU received a two-year, $1.5 million grant from the Department of Defense to establish the program, known as the Virtual Institutes for Cyber and Electromagnetic Spectrum Research and Employ, or VICEROY, Virtual Institute. The grant is overseen by the Griffiss Institute, which is a nonprofit talent ...

Writing is an age-old cultural technique. Thousands of years ago, humans were already carving signs and symbols into stone slabs. Scripts have become far more sophisticated since then but one aspect remains the same: Whether the writer is using cuneiform or a modern alphabet, a solid substrate, such as clay or paper, is required to fix the written structures in place. However, researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), TU Darmstadt, and Wuhan University asked themselves how to write in a bulk fluid like water without fixing substrates. The concept would not be unlike the way aircraft leave three-dimensional vapor trails behind them when they ...

About one in every five people carries a version of a gene that, although largely unsung, appears to confer protection against both Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, Stanford Medicine investigators and their colleagues have learned. These lucky people may someday benefit all the more from a vaccine that could slow or stall the progression of these two most common neurodegenerative conditions. An analysis of medical and genetic data from hundreds of thousands of people of diverse ancestries from several continents has revealed ...

First-time fathers seem to experience a steeper decline in relationship satisfaction in the first two years post-partum than second-time fathers, who appear to recover lost relationship satisfaction by the time their second child is 14 months old, according to a study published August 30, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Judith T. Mack and Lena Brunke from Technische Universität Dresden, Germany, and colleagues. Having a strong primary relationship can help couples more successfully weather potentially-challenging transitions like the birth of a child. Most research on ...

Detailed analysis of two Late Bronze Age urn burials uncovers animal bones and jewelry amidst the cremated remains of a woman and child, and reveals insights into prehistoric funerary rites ### Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0289140 Article Title: More than urns: A multi-method pipeline for analyzing cremation burials Author Countries: Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Belgium Funding: This study was funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) in the framework of the project ‘Unlocking the secrets ...

DURHAM, N.C. – A man-made antibody successfully prevented organ rejection when tested in primates that had undergone a kidney transplant, Duke Health researchers report.   The finding clears the way for the new monoclonal antibody to move forward in human clinical trials. Results of the study appear online Aug. 30 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.   “Current medications to prevent organ rejection are good overall, but they have a lot of side effects,” said lead author Imran J. Anwar, M.D., a surgical research fellow ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Researchers have developed a blood test that detects Parkinson’s disease, potentially establishing a way to help diagnose the condition before nervous system damage worsens.   A new blood-based diagnostic test would be a major advancement for Parkinson’s disease, which afflicts 10 million people worldwide and is the second-most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s. Led by a team of Duke Health neuroscientists, the study appears Aug. 30 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.   “Currently, Parkinson’s disease is diagnosed largely based on clinical symptoms after significant neurological damage has ...

The surface protein of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), known as the spike protein, is critical for infecting host cells. The spike protein facilitates the infection process by binding to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors on the surface of airway epithelial cells, initiating the virus entry into the cells. By engineering an ACE2 receptor to increase the affinity to the spike protein, researchers demonstrated a novel method to neutralize the virus effectively. The engineered ACE2 (3N39v4-Fc) acts as a decoy by binding to the viral spike protein, thus preventing the binding of viruses to the ACE2 receptor on the cell surface. ...

New Curtin research into injuries sustained by trail users has found mountain biking is not the dangerous, injury-plagued sport reserved for thrill-seekers that it is often perceived to be and that the health benefits outweigh the risks. Researchers analysed data from dozens of studies across the world, including Australia, encompassing 220,935 injured mountain bikers and 17,757 injured hikers. The study aimed to pinpoint the injury types and affected body areas in order to gain insights into the medical treatment of such cases. Lead author PhD candidate Paul Braybrook, from Curtin’s School of Nursing, said mountain bikers were primarily injured on their upper limbs, ...

The same neurons that help bats navigate through space may also help them navigate collective social environments, finds a new study published today in the journal Nature. Many mammals — including bats and humans — are believed to navigate with the help of a brain structure called the hippocampus, which encodes a mental “map” of familiar surroundings. For example, as you walk around your neighborhood or commute to work, individual “place” neurons in the hippocampus fire to indicate where you are. In the new study, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, used wireless neural ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. and WINNIPEG, Manitoba – IHT Group, a division of Decisive Dividend Corp. (TSXV: DE) based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, is bringing patented cooling pad technology for hogs to the North American market in spring 2024. The pads are 2-foot-by-4-foot aluminum tread plates on top of copper pipes that circulate water. Sensors in the pads determine if the hog is too hot and circulate new water to keep the pad cool. The technology was designed by researchers in Purdue University’s Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering and Department of Animal Sciences. Heat harms hogs Record heat across North America ...