NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA  – Ochsner Health has announced the recipients of the 38th Annual Alton Ochsner Award Relating Smoking and Disease.  They are Ken J. Kellar, Ph.D, Professor of Pharmacology, Georgetown University Medical Center, and Ryan E. Hibbs, Ph.D., Professor of Neurobiology, University of California San Diego. This prestigious honor bestowed by Ochsner Health recognizes scientists who have made major contributions in understanding the relationship between smoking and disease, along with the development of innovative treatment modalities. The award is named in honor of Alton Ochsner, MD, the co-founder of the Ochsner ...

In the last few years, breast reduction procedures in the U.S. have become increasingly common. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, nearly 100,000 breast reduction procedures were performed in 2020. This procedure involves a high-tension T-Junction suture in which three incisions meet, forming the shape of a T. Larger breast reductions with longer incisions may have a higher risk of complications and wound healing problems at the T-Junction, which represent 13 to 39% of wound breakdown. It’s known that decreased blood flow to the wound, which then reduces the amount of oxygen to the area, promotes wound breakdown. Looking to improve ...

It’s human nature to be judgmental. But why do we place less blame on someone, or give more praise, if we find out that person had a history of suffering in childhood? In a recent study, University of Missouri researchers discovered why someone’s childhood adversity influences how others judge their behavior. The finding contributes to a growing body of evidence that suggests judgments of praise and blame are “asymmetrically sensitive” to certain types of information about someone’s life history, said Philip Robbins, associate professor and chair of the Department of Philosophy. “In the case of negative or anti-social behavior, we ...

East Hanover, August 22, 2023 — Since the COVID-19 pandemic, gains in the labor market for people with disabilities have been at near all-time highs. Expert speakers at last Friday’s nTIDE Deeper Dive Lunch & Learn Webinar provided results from an in-depth University of New Hampshire research study, which took a closer look at the unprecedented surge in employment-to-population ratio among most of the six disability subgroups identified by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Possible driving factors behind this employment transformation were also explored. nTIDE Deeper Dive Lunch & Learn Webinar is presented by Kessler Foundation ...

If coal and natural gas power generation were 2% more efficient, then, every year, there could be 460 million fewer tons of carbon dioxide released and 2 trillion fewer gallons of water used. A recent innovation to the steam cycle used in fossil fuel power generation could achieve this. Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed a coating for steam condensers used in fossil fuel steam-cycle generation that is made with fluorinated diamond-like carbon, or F-DLC. The researchers reported in the journal Nature Communications that this coating could boost the overall process efficiency ...

NEW YORK, NY--Ask any neurologist: Parkinson’s disease is a brain disorder. The conspicuous symptoms of Parkinson’s disease—uncontrollable tremors, slowed down motions, and the feeling that one’s feet are stuck to the ground—all stem from the loss of neurons in a region of the brain that helps control movement. But many researchers believe that the neurodegenerative disorder may get started far away from the brain—in the gut—and years before the first neurological signs appear. New findings by Columbia researchers David Sulzer, ...

Freshwater ecosystems account for half of global emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. Rivers and streams, especially, are thought to emit a substantial amount of that methane, but the rates and patterns of these emissions at global scales remain largely undocumented. An international team of researchers, including University of Wisconsin–Madison freshwater ecologists, has changed that with a new description of the global rates, patterns and drivers of methane emissions from ...

INDIANAPOLIS – A new study by Indiana University School of Medicine researchers uses more genetically diverse mouse models to study the accumulation and spread of abnormal tau protein deposits in the brain—a known sign of Alzheimer’s disease and several other neurodegenerative diseases. The study’s findings, recently published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, could lead to better research models that improve understanding of how different genetic backgrounds influence neurodegenerative disease development and treatment needs. “As ...

A study conducted by researchers affiliated with the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil concluded that particles of glitter can hinder the growth of organisms at the base of aquatic ecosystems, such as cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), which play a key role in the biogeochemical cycles of water and soil, as well as being eaten by other organisms. An article on the study is published in the journal Aquatic Toxicology. Ubiquitous in makeup, nail polish, holiday decorations, greeting cards, Carnival costumes and many other places, glitter sticks to skin and clothes and requires a lot of effort to remove. It is made up of microplastics, tiny particles ...

Paper Title: Outpatient cervical ripening and labor induction with low-dose vaginal misoprostol reduces the interval to delivery: A systematic review and network meta-analysis Journal: American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, July 2023 Authors: Joanne L. Stone, MD, MSHCDL, Professor and System Chair of the Raquel and Jaime Gilinski Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Rachel Meislin, MD, Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellow at Mount Sinai Hospital; and other coauthors. Bottom Line: While prior research and analysis have evaluated methods of outpatient labor ...

HOUSTON (Aug. 22, 2023) — The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) recently awarded The Texas Heart Institute® (THI) a two-year, $1.14 million grant to develop a novel, first-in-class drug to treat cardiovascular disease (CVD) as a significant improvement to current treatment regimens — specifically for adverse events arising from atherosclerosis.   Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimating that one person dies from CVD every 33 seconds in the United States, accounting for one in every five deaths in 2021.   CVD leads to heart ...

SAN ANTONIO (Aug. 22, 2023) — The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (also called UT Health San Antonio) and seven regional collaborators will leverage $46 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) over the next five to seven years to translate scientific discoveries into therapeutic benefits for human health and well-being. A key focus will be reducing health disparities among Mexican Americans, active military personnel and veterans. William L. Henrich, ...

The management of working capital — or a firm’s current assets minus its current liabilities — aids organizations in making efficient use of their existing assets and maximizing cash flow. The relationship between efficient working capital management and firm performance can be complex due to globally dispersed supply chains, number of suppliers and product variety, and technological uncertainty, among other factors. New research from the University of Notre Dame shows that information technology represents a critical investment that ...

BERLIN, Germany – Stealth BioTherapeutics, a front-runner in the world of mitochondrial medicine, is set to unveil its latest breakthroughs at the much-anticipated Targeting Mitochondria 2023 conference in Berlin this October. Dr. David A. Brown, Vice President of Mitochondrial Research at Stealth BioTherapeutics, is slated to give an enlightening talk titled, “Translational insights from targeting mitochondria in rare diseases.” His presentation promises to provide insights into Stealth’s progress in clinical programs, with updates on their advancements in addressing rare mitochondrial diseases across several Phase 2/3 clinical trials. ...

Cellular solids are materials composed of many cells that have been packed together, such as a honeycomb. The shape of those cells largely determines the material’s mechanical properties, including its stiffness or strength. Bones, for instance, are filled with a natural      material that enables them to be lightweight, but stiff and strong.  Inspired by bones and other cellular solids found in nature, humans have used the same concept ...

A University of Houston researcher is launching a new study to examine how elementary schools across Texas and Florida identify specific learning disabilities in students, with the goal of improving processes so children with significant academic difficulties can succeed. Jeremy Miciak, research associate professor of psychology at the University of Houston’s Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics, was awarded a $1.7 million grant from the National Center for Special Education Research at the Institute of Education Sciences, the research arm ...

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to have demonstrated the preventive effect of AF ablation on long-term AF-related cardiovascular events in very old patients with NVAF.” BUFFALO, NY- August 22, 2023 – A new research 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, “Cardiovascular events and death after catheter ablation in very old patients with nonvalvular ...

More and more bacterial pathogens are developing resistance. There is an increasing risk that common drugs will no longer be effective against infectious diseases. That is why scientists around the world are searching for new effective substances. Researchers from the University of Bonn, the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Utrecht University (Netherlands), Northeastern University in Boston (USA) and the company NovoBiotic Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge (USA) now have discovered and deciphered the mode of action of a new antibiotic. Clovibactin is derived from ...

PHILADELPHIA—(August 22, 2023)—Now, scientists at The Wistar Institute have discovered a potential target for gastric cancers associated with Epstein-Barr Virus; study results were published in the journal mBio. In the paper, Wistar’s Tempera lab investigates the epigenetic characteristics of gastric cancer associated with the Epstein-Barr Virus: EBVaGC. In evaluating EBVaGC’s epigenetics — the series of biological signals associated with the genome that determines whether a given gene is expressed — the Tempera lab ...

– By Alison Hatt The prospect of a quantum internet, connecting quantum computers and capable of highly secure data transmission, is enticing, but making it poses a formidable challenge. Transporting quantum information requires working with individual photons rather than the light sources used in conventional fiber optic networks. To produce and manipulate individual photons, scientists are turning to quantum light emitters, also known as color centers. These atomic-scale defects in semiconductor materials can emit single photons of fixed wavelength or color and allow photons to interact with electron spin properties in controlled ways.  A team ...

Scientists and imaging specialists have teamed up to help save one of the world’s most endangered groups of animals: freshwater mussels. With funding provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Conservation Training Center, imaging experts will create 3D shell models based on specimens from the Florida Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. Once complete, the models will be available online for free to educate the public about these amazing yet little-known creatures that ...

Bacteria live in nearly every habitat on earth including within soil, water, acidic hot springs and even within our own guts. Many are involved in fundamental processes like fermentation, decomposition and nitrogen fixation. But scientists don’t understand a fundamental process within bacteria cells: how they organize themselves before division. Driving vs. surfing When cells divide the cell splits into two “daughter cells” with the same genetic material as the original cell. During this process, the DNA and other cellular components replicate, and then this “cargo” ...

JMIR Nursing Editor-in-Chief: Elizabeth Borycki RN, PhD, FIAHIS, FACMI, FCAHS and theme editor Kenrick Dwain Cato, PhD, RN, CPHIMS, FAAN welcome submissions to a special theme issue examining "Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Nursing." AI is revolutionizing health care. Nurse informaticist developers, researchers, practitioners, clinicians, educators, and innovators have designed, developed, implemented, and used AI to support patients, their families, nurses and health care activities.  AI has been used to support ...

In humans, the SLC29A3 gene regulates the function of lysosomes to control waste recycling in cells such as macrophages (that engulf and destroy foreign bodies). This gene encodes for the lysosomal protein that transport nucleosides — degradation products of RNA and DNA — from lysosomes to the cytoplasm.  Loss-of-function mutations in the SLC29A3 gene lead to aberrant nucleoside storage, resulting in a spectrum of conditions called SLC29A3 disorders. These disorders can manifest in the form of pigmented skin patches, enlargement of the liver/spleen, hearing loss, or type 1 diabetes. A key manifestation of this group of disorders is histiocytosis, ...

Max Planck Florida will be able to expand their research program to investigate the neural circuits underlying Alzheimer’s disease with new support. The National Institute on Aging of the NIH has awarded Dr. Yingxue Wang $1,038,819 over three years as part of the Alzheimer’s Disease Initiative Fund. The research will shed new light on how the brain forms new memories and maintains them over time and what can lead to memory decline during Alzheimer’s Disease. Turning our daily experiences ...