A striking image of the invasive orange pore fungus (Favolaschia calocera), which highlights the potential threats the species may pose to Australian ecosystems, has won the third BMC Ecology and Evolution image competition. The competition showcases the wonder of the natural world — both past and present — and celebrates those working to understand it. The winning images are open access and freely available for use under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CCBY) license.  The overall winning image depicts bright ...

The end of the last Ice Age also marked the end for more than three dozen genera of large mammals in North America, from mammoths and mastodons to bison and saber-toothed cats. Details concerning the precise timing and circumstances, however, have remained murky ever since. A team of scientists that included Texas A&M University archaeologist Dr. Michael Waters recently focused on the well-known Rancho La Brea Tar Pits in southern California in their quest to provide answers to these questions, resulting in the most exact and detailed timeline for the extinctions that happened during the latter part of the Pleistocene ...

In trials, the antipsychotic drug brexpiprazole (Rexulti) failed to provide a clinically meaningful benefit and increased the risk of death. Yet the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has fast tracked its approval, making Rexulti the first antipsychotic for treating agitation in elderly patients with dementia. At a cost of around $1,400 a month Rexulti’s makers, Otsuka and Lundbeck, are forecasting an additional $1 billion in annual sales, but there are serious questions about the harm-benefit balance of this drug, writes investigative journalist Robert Whitaker in The BMJ today. The decision may also reverse ...

The University of Arizona College of Nursing was one of 50 institutions nationwide to receive a Health Resources and Services Administration grant to increase the number and diversity of Doctor of Nursing Practice students in clinical rotations at Federally Qualified Health Center partners in southern Arizona. The project will use the $2.6 million in funding from the HRSA’s Advanced Nursing Education Workforce Program to deploy immersive managed practice adaptable clinical training, or IMPACT, starting in the spring semester of 2024. The grant will support students pursuing doctorates in the specialty areas ...

Spectacles that are marketed to filter out blue light probably make no difference to eye strain caused by computer use or to sleep quality, according to a review of 17 randomised controlled trials of the best available evidence so far. Nor did the review find any evidence that blue-light filtering lenses protect against damage to the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye, as included studies did not evaluate this outcome. Blue-light filtering lenses, also known as blue-light blocking spectacles, have been increasingly prescribed or recommended, often by optometrists, ...

In 1956, theoretical physicist David Pines predicted that electrons in a solid can do something strange. While they normally have a mass and an electric charge, Pines asserted that they can combine to form a composite particle that is massless, neutral, and does not interact with light. He called this particle a “demon.” Since then, it has been speculated to play an important role in the behaviors of a wide variety of metals. Unfortunately, the same properties that make it interesting have allowed it to elude detection since its prediction. Now, a team of researchers led by Peter Abbamonte, a professor of physics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, ...

Most of us who’ve reached middle age have noticed a slowing in memory and cognition, but scientists don’t have a clear picture of the molecular changes that take place in the brain to cause it. Now, a study in mice has determined that the most pronounced changes occur in the white matter, a type of nervous system tissue that’s integral to transmitting signals across the brain. The study also examined two treatments — caloric restriction and infusions of plasma from young mice — that affect certain regions of the brain, with ...

In an experiment on how turbulent boundary layers respond to acceleration in the flow around them, aerospace engineers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign observed an unexpected internal boundary layer. “Not only were we able to identify a new internal boundary layer, but we were able to systematically track its height so we can understand its growth rate. We also noticed that it only formed if our pressure grading, our acceleration, was sufficiently strong. There was a threshold under which we didn't ...

New research to be presented at this year’s Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Hamburg, Germany (2-6 October) shows that among people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, being divorced is associated with a two-thirds higher risk of lower limb amputation (LLA) (amputations below the knee level) compared with being married, and being male is associated with a 57% higher risk of LLA compared with being female. The study is by Dr Stefan Jansson, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden, and colleagues. Deterioration in the structure of both large and ...

DURHAM, N.H. — Pregnant women that live in walkable communities—with more sidewalks, parks and walking paths—not only engage in more physical activity but are also more likely to experience favorable birth outcomes, according to research from the University of New Hampshire. The study, published in the journal of Economics and Human Biology, found that expectant mothers living in walkable counties tend to engage in more walking and exercise and have fewer issues with premature births, low birth weight, gestational diabetes and hypertension. Walking is often recommended as a safer, ...

Different cyanobacterial species produce different toxins, said OSU’s Kimberly Halsey, who led the study. Most of them cause gastrointestinal illness and acute skin rashes, and they can be deadly. In 2017, more than 30 cattle died after drinking contaminated water at Junipers Reservoir near Lakeview, Oregon, and blooms particularly pose a threat to dogs entering affected lakes. Even though the research dealt with just one lake and one toxin, the research demonstrates VOCs’ potential in monitoring critical waterways, said Halsey, associate professor of microbiology in the College of Science. She said the study published ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. – There is a traditional understanding that if someone experiences a threatening event, their attitudes and beliefs will change. Some scholars predict that a threat will cause someone to become more conservative on a variety of issues or that they will become more extreme in their attitudes. However, a new study from researchers at Michigan State University and Tilburg University found that Americans’ political attitudes did not change significantly during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, contrary to ...

FINDINGS Scientists at City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States, have identified how low levels of the TET2 gene fuel the rapid growth of acute myeloid leukemia in animal models. Cell Stem Cell recently published the study. A team led by Jianjun Chen, Ph.D., the Simms/Mann Family Foundation Chair in Systems Biology at Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, found that TET2 deficiency sets off a cascade of biochemical changes that enhance the bone marrow cancer’s ability to spread. These changes ...

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory has named Sean Jones as deputy laboratory director for science and technology. Jones will begin his new role on October 9, serving as Argonne’s senior science strategist, advisor and chief research officer.  Jones will join Argonne from the National Science Foundation (NSF). In his current role as Assistant Director of the NSF’s Mathematical and Physical Sciences directorate, he oversees a $1.86 billion portfolio that includes five science divisions, domestic and international research facilities, and ...

Julie Carrier, professor and head of the University of Tennessee Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, was awarded the James R. and Karen A. Gilley Academic Leadership Award during the annual international meeting of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) in July. The award was given in recognition of Carrier’s exceptional leadership as department head as well as her ongoing dedication to furthering the UT Institute of Agriculture’s mission to provide research and extension ...

PITTSBURGH, Aug. 17, 2023 – Patients with cancer who live in rural Pennsylvania counties appear to know that they may have better outcomes if they receive their cancer surgery at a hospital that performs a high volume of those surgeries, but still opt for lower volume hospitals closer to home when their cancer is likely less complex, according to a new analysis published today in JCO Oncology Practice by health policy scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. With a shortage of experienced surgeons in rural America and rural ...

Gut microbiome variation associated with race and ethnicity arises after three months of age and persists through childhood, according to a new study published August 17th in the open access journal PLOS Biology by Elizabeth K. Mallott of Washington University in St. Louis, US, Seth Bordenstein of Pennsylvania State University, US, and colleagues. Human microbiome variation has been linked to the incidence, prevalence and mortality of many diseases and is known to associate with race and ethnicity in the United States. However, in this context race and ethnicity are considered proxies for inequitable exposure to social and environmental determinants of health due to structural racism. ...

Environmental regulators and other organizations should do more scientific experimentation to inform natural resource policy, according to an international group of economists that includes University of Wyoming researchers. In a new paper in the prestigious journal Science, the economists say more frequent use of up-front experiments would result in more effective environmental policymaking in areas ranging from pollution control to timber harvesting across the world. “Although formal experimentation is a cornerstone of science and is increasingly embedded in nonenvironmental social programs, it is virtually absent in environmental ...

The city of Gatineau is planning a tramway network that will link up with Ottawa, where the Light Rail Transit (LRT) continues to be bogged down by major mishaps. With Montreal’s new Réseau express métropolitain (REM) light transit system experiencing its own hiccups to start, how can cities looking to incorporate mass transport systems successfully launch such endeavors while avoiding project failures and years of misfortune? New research from a University of Ottawa professor suggests project leaders not overlook the “F” word. Telfer School of Management professor Lavagnon Ika found a lack of full appreciation ...

Almost 66 million years ago, an asteroid struck the Earth, killing all non-avian dinosaurs and allowing mammals to dominate. But just how did we evolve from rat-like creatures running between the feet of dinosaurs to take over their ecological niches? Dr. Kendra Chritz, assistant professor in the UBC department of earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences, aims to find out. Dr. Chritz is co-leading a new multi-million-dollar research project to learn how ecosystems and organisms recover after a catastrophic, climate-changing event. She explains in this Q&A that clues may lie in the fossilized teeth of mammals. Why don’t we know much about how mammals ...

Scientists have discovered an additional potential cause of the genetic mutations that result in rare conditions such as Huntington’s disease (HD). The neurodegenerative diseases, which also include most spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs), are known to be caused by an expansion in the CAG (cytosine-adenine-guanine) repeats within a gene that in turn leads to an expanded polyglutamine (polyQ) tract in a protein. Such diseases are inherited, given that the expansion of CAG repeats in a gene can be passed down the generations. Previously, it had been thought the damage in these genetic diseases was caused solely by increased protein aggregate toxicity. However, ...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Current methods can vastly overestimate the rates that malaria parasites are multiplying in an infected person’s blood, which has important implications for determining how harmful they could be to a host, according to a new report. The findings also have consequences for understanding the evolution of traits that lead to drug resistance, how quickly a parasite might spread through a population, and for evaluating the effectiveness of new vaccines. The study, “Extraordinary Parasite Multiplication Rates in ...

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a leading cause of death in the countries where it is practised, with over 44,000 additional women and young girls dying each year, a new study reveals. FGM accounts for more deaths in these countries than any cause other than enteric infections – usually resulting from consuming contaminated food or water – respiratory infections, or malaria and remains legal in five of the 28 countries where it is most practiced. Researchers are calling for FGM to be made illegal Mali, Malawi, Chad, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, given that legal change can lead to cultural change. They also say that efforts must be ...

While for physical systems in equilibrium, thermodynamics is an invaluable tool to make predictions about their state and behaviour without needing access to many details, finding similarly general and concise descriptions of non-equilibrium systems is an open challenge. A paradigmatic example of non-equilibrium systems are turbulent systems, which are ubiquitous both in natural and synthetic settings, from blood flow to airplanes. Especially wave turbulence is known to be a very difficult problem, challenging to calculate and not easy to measure, as waves of so many different wavelengths are involved. Now scientists based at the University ...

(MEMPHIS, Tenn. – August 17, 2023) St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists, in collaboration with the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) Limited, found that immune cells present in people months before influenza (flu) infection could more accurately predict if an individual would develop symptoms than current methods which primarily rely on antibody levels. The study found certain immune cells were associated with increased protection, while other immune cells were associated with increased susceptibility to developing symptoms after catching ...