In the spring of 2020, one country after another went into lockdown as Covid-19 spread across the globe. In some places, e.g. China, the civilian population was kept inside by the authorities. Other countries, like Spain, had a curfew in place for weeks, during which only short trips to the supermarket were allowed.  The lockdowns meant there were suddenly much fewer cars on the roads and people in forests and parks. While we were sitting at home watching Netflix, wild animals emerged from the bushes and edges of the forest. They ventured closer to the roads and cities that had suddenly emptied. We know this thanks to data from GPS trackers attached to a large number of terrestrial ...

Research has brought clarity to the longstanding question of how starch granules form in the seeds of Triticeae crops – wheat, barley, and rye - unlocking diverse potential benefits for numerous industries and for human health. Starch in wheat, maize, rice and potatoes is a vital energy-giving part of our diet and a key ingredient in many industrial applications from brewing and baking to the production of paper, glue, textiles, and construction materials. Starch granules of different crops vary greatly in size and shape. Wheat starch (and those of other Triticeae) uniquely have two distinct types of granules: large A-type granules and smaller B-type granules. The ratio ...

Against the background of global warming, the temperature seasonality has changed obviously at global and regional scales, which has exerted significant ecological and societal impacts. As a populous country highly sensitive to climate change, China experienced an overall decreasing trend of the amplitude of the annual temperature cycle during 1961–2007. This national-scale average downward trend is likely to continue throughout the rest of the 21st century according to future projections, with a spatially robust decrease in most regions but increases at more local scales. ...

Water diversion projects, though meant to correct unequal water distribution, unintentionally promote the growth of invasive aquatic species like the golden mussel. This fast-reproducing, substrate-clinging mussel causes biofouling, damaging structures and water quality, and leading to socio-economic and ecological issues. Yet, how environmental factors aid this colonization remains largely unclear, necessitating further research. In a ground-breaking study published on 24 July 2023 in the journal Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, researchers from Tsinghua University, utilized logistic ...

East Hanover, NJ. August 25, 2023. Scientists at Kessler Foundation reported results from a randomized controlled trial examining the influence of processing speed on treatment benefits of the Kessler Foundation modified Story Memory Technique (KF-mSMT®) in individuals with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). They found that processing speed played a role in benefit from the KF-mSMT on a list learning task, but not on a prose memory task. Their article, “The influence of information processing speed on benefit from learning and memory rehabilitation in TBI: a sub-analysis of the TBI-MEM trial,” (do: 10.1080/02699052.2023.2216024) ...

Drexel University’s School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems, in collaboration with Drexel’s College of Medicine, has received grants from the pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb, to support the education and training of diverse and talented students looking to pursue careers in cell and gene therapy.    The funding provided close to $1 million to support the creation of a new Cell and Gene Therapy Technology, Engineering, Analytics, Manufacturing, & Science academic program, known as CGT-TEAMS, that launched this summer ...

By Alistair Jones SMU Office of Research – American economist Milton Friedman cast a long shadow with his 1970 article, 'A Friedman Doctrine: The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits'. For decades, it became a touchstone for free-market economies, interpreted as the sole purpose of a firm was to make money for its shareholders. But there's an alternative dynamic, an awareness that companies also have a responsibility to stakeholders – such as employees, customers, suppliers, communities and government. This stakeholder capitalism has a corporate purpose beyond profit maximisation, aiming ...

By Stuart Pallister SMU Office of Research – Two Singapore Management University researchers have embarked on a three-year project, funded by Singapore’s Ministry of Education, to ‘de-bias’ digital food recognition and develop a more robust machine learning system capable of correctly identifying Singapore’s multiracial food. The two researchers from SMU’s School of Computing and Information Sciences, Professor Ngo Chong Wah and Associate Professor Rajesh Balan, already have extensive ...

AUGUSTA, Ga. (August 24, 2023) – In 2021, Arni S.R. Srinivasa Rao, PhD, presented a critique on the formula of net population replacement levels at the International Population Conference 2021 in Hyderabad, India. It was one of the first times he had publicly shared his latest research on population replacement commonly calculated through net reproduction rate (NRR). A blog on the same topic written by him also appeared in Population Association of America’s PAA Affairs. Rao, the director at the Laboratory for Theory and Mathematical Modeling in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, has published ...

At a pivotal time for Medicaid health coverage for Americans with low incomes, a report on the impacts of Michigan’s Medicaid expansion shows very positive effects, as well as opportunities for continued improvements. The report was produced by the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation as part of its evaluation of the Healthy Michigan Plan, Michigan’s Medicaid expansion program. The program currently has about 1 million enrollees and was signed into law 10 years ago this September. On the whole, the report shows that the Healthy Michigan Plan has been effective at: reducing uninsurance,  supporting ...

Amsterdam, Netherlands – 25 Aug 2023: Researchers urge governments to raise the legal age to purchase cigarettes to 22 years or higher as study finds it becomes less addictive and easier to quit as people get older. The research is presented at ESC Congress 2023.1 In 2020, more than one in five people worldwide used tobacco.2 Tobacco kills up to half of its users.2 Smokers below the age of 50 years have a five-fold higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease compared with their non-smoking peers.3 The legal age to purchase tobacco is 18 years old in many ...

Amsterdam, Netherlands – 25 Aug 2023: Middle-aged adults with three or more unhealthy traits including slightly high waist circumference, blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose have heart attacks and strokes two years earlier than their peers, according to research presented at ESC Congress 2023.1 “Many people in their 40s and 50s have a bit of fat around the middle and marginally elevated blood pressure, cholesterol or glucose but feel generally well, are unaware of the risks and do not seek medical advice,” said study author Dr. Lena Lönnberg of Västmanland  County ...

Reefs, whether natural or man-made, are hotspots of marine biodiversity. But especially in soft-bottomed seas, reefs have now become scarce because many hard substrates have been removed due to overfishing of shellfish, dredging, trawling, and deep-sea mining. How can we restore this lost biodiversity, as encouraged by the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) and the EU Biodiversity Strategy? Now, researchers have shown that culled fruit trees sunk into the sea are a cheap and effective way to recreate reefs and boost the local diversity and abundance of marine life. The study, published ...

Replacing single use plastic cups with paper ones is problematic. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg show that a paper cup that ends up in nature can also cause damage as they also contain toxic chemicals. Reports of plastics pollution contaminating all parts of the Earth and in all living things has accelerated a shift to alternative materials. The coffee latte you take with you from the kiosk on the corner now comes in paper cups, sometimes even with paper lids. But that cup can also harm living ...

A recent study by the University of Eastern Finland and Balettakademien Stockholm found that performing in a dance company and being involved in its activities play a significant role in the identity and disease-related identity negotiation in people with Parkinson’s disease. Performing in the dance company and sharing the process of performing with others created a strong group identity for the dancers with Parkinson’s disease. The dancers’ experiences of watching and being watched provided them with novel ways of expressing themselves and being seen without their identity being associated with Parkinson’s disease. Earlier ...

Myocardial infarction, the number one cause of sudden death in adults and the number two cause of death in Korea, is a deadly disease with an initial mortality rate of 30%, and about 5-10% of patients die even if they are transported to a medical center for treatment. The number of myocardial infarction patients in Korea has been increasing steeply, from 99,647 in 2017 to 126,342 in 2021, an increase of 26.8% in five years. Until now, drug administration, percutaneous angioplasty, and arterial bypass surgery have been known as treatments, but ...

ARLINGTON, Va. (August 25, 2023) — Avoiding the unnecessary use of indwelling catheters and promptly removing catheters that are no longer needed are the first steps in preventing catheter-associated urinary tract infections in acute care hospitals, according to new recommendations developed by five medical societies and published today in the journal Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. “Urinary catheters can be associated with infection and also with non-infectious harms like trauma and obstruction,” said Payal Patel, M.D., an infectious disease physician at Intermountain Health and ...

FINDINGS UCLA researchers find that they can electronically recruit patients for biomedical research at rates up to 40 times higher than the traditional method of patient portal messages by embedding study recruitment into the pre-appointment preCheck-in page.   BACKGROUND While patient portal messages are increasingly used to recruit patients for research studies, this method typically results in study enrollment rates of 1-8%. In addition, this method of study recruitment has historically led to ...

A new fund to fast-track patient access to potentially valuable new medicines may incentivise the pharmaceutical industry to develop high priced drugs for rare diseases with weak evidence on clinical benefits. Health economics and policy academics from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, warn that if the NHS England Innovative Medicines Fund (IMF) is not implemented appropriately, it risks disincentivising the generation of essential evidence and could shift the financial burden from the pharmaceutical industry to the public finances. The IMF operates on similar terms to ...

Certain gut problems, such as constipation, difficulty swallowing, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), may be early warning signs of the neurological condition Parkinson’s disease, suggests research published online in the journal Gut. Gastrointestinal symptoms are thought to precede the development of cerebrovascular disease, such as stroke or a brain aneurysm, or Alzheimer’s disease, and it has been suggested (Braak’s hypothesis) that gut conditions may precede the development of Parkinson’s disease too. To ...

Over 60s with the unhealthiest lifestyles are significantly more likely to require admission to a nursing home than their peers with the healthiest lifestyles, suggest the findings of a large population study published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. Physical inactivity, smoking, poor diet and sleep disorders between the ages of 60 and 64 seemed to be particularly influential: they were associated with a more than doubling in the risk of admission, the findings show.  Modifiable lifestyle risk factors are associated with the development and progression of several long term conditions, ...

We are delighted to announce that the Beverage Plant Research articles are now indexed in CABI specialized databases. This important milestone ensures that articles published in Beverage Plant Research are easily found when searching for beverage plant literature and it enables this journal authors to keep track of how often their article has been cited by others. According to the correspondence made by CABI, the Beverage Plant Research will be indexed from Volume 1, 2021. About Beverage Plant Research Beverage Plant Research (e-ISSN: ...

“Eco-friendly” paper drinking straws contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals, a new study has concluded.    In the first analysis of its kind in Europe, and only the second in the world, Belgian researchers tested 39 brands of straws for the group of synthetic chemicals known as poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).      PFAS were found in the majority of the straws tested and were most common in those made from paper and bamboo, the study, published ...

Enormous amounts of sediment, or sand and mud, flowed through Houston waterways during Hurricane Harvey in 2017, due in part to modifications made by humans to bayous, rivers and streams over the past century, that could seriously impact future flooding events and be costly to the City of Houston. New analysis by geology researchers at the University of Houston found 27 million cubic meters of sediment, or 16 Astrodomes, moved through 12 Houston waterways and Addicks and Barker reservoirs during Harvey, the largest rainfall event in U.S. history. After the storm, up to five feet ...

A stem cell patch developed by USC researchers for patients with macular degeneration will soon be tested in a phase 2b clinical trial. This latest milestone in the patch’s development was made possible by a combined $21 million in support from a state organization, a nonprofit foundation and the university. Last month, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) awarded an estimated $12.4 million to the USC-supported startup Regenerative Patch Technologies (RPT) to test the safety and efficacy ...