The US has committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. To accomplish this goal, large cuts in emissions are necessary, especially in high-emission sectors like the building industry. In an article publishing on August 18 in the journal One Earth, a team of researchers use a computational model to analyze several scenarios of future building energy use in the US. They find that by tackling emissions on multiple fronts and placing focus on “demand-side measures” that affect how power is drawn from the ...

The summertime barbecue – an American tradition synonymous with celebrating freedom – may be tainted by a decidedly unfree market. A new Stanford study reveals how meat and dairy industry lobbying has influenced government regulations and funding to stifle competition from alternative meat products with smaller climate and environmental impacts. The analysis, published Aug. 18 in One Earth, compares innovations and policies related to plant-based meat alternatives and lab-grown meat in the U.S. and European Union. Its findings could help ensure ...

About The Study: The findings of this study that included 612 women suggest that adherence to preconception healthy dietary patterns before infertility treatment may be associated with a lower likelihood of pregnancy loss.  Authors: Jorge E. Chavarro, M.D., Sc.D., of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.29982) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including ...

About The Study: In a racially and ethnically diverse cohort of 34,000 adolescents, those from neighborhoods with extreme concentrations of racial and economic disadvantage were more likely to screen positive for depressive symptoms and suicidality at well-teen visits compared to their counterparts from the most racially and economically privileged neighborhoods.  Authors: Julia Acker, M.S., of the University of California, Berkeley, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.29825) Editor’s ...

About The Study: Telemedicine was rapidly adopted in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) in early 2020 but subsequently stabilized at a low use rate that was nonetheless higher than before 2020 in this study of more than 4.4 million residents at 15,000 SNFs. Higher telemedicine use in SNFs was associated with improved access to psychiatry visits in SNFs.   Authors: Michael L. Barnett, M.D., M.S., of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.29895) Editor’s ...

An estimated 1 in 4 older Americans with dementia or mild cognitive impairment lives alone and is at risk of practices like unsafe driving, wandering outside the home, mixing up medications and failing to attend medical appointments.  In a study publishing in JAMA Network Open on Aug. 18, 2023, researchers led by UC San Francisco concluded that the United States health system is poorly equipped to serve patients living solo with cognitive decline, a group whose numbers are predicted to swell as the population ages.  For these patients, living alone ...

A study published in Engineering introduces a novel image-based visual servoing (IBVS) method for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to track dynamic targets in GPS-denied environments. Titled "Dynamic Target Tracking of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Under Unpredictable Disturbances," the research article presents a comprehensive approach that addresses the challenges of estimating target velocities, image depth estimation, and tracking stability in the presence of external disturbances. The proposed method utilizes a constructed virtual camera to derive simplified and decoupled image dynamics for underactuated UAVs. By considering ...

The Jovian system has greatly attracted the interest of human exploration because of the important scientific value. However, Jupiter and its 4 Galilean moons form a unique and complex multi-body dynamical environment that greatly challenges trajectory design and optimization. Moreover, the extremely strong radiation environment of Jupiter and the low available fuel of spacecraft further increase the difficulty of trajectory design. In order to satisfy the requirements of diverse missions of the Jovian system exploration, develop new mission concepts, and obtain higher merit with lower cost, a variety of theories and methodologies of ...

A research group led by Dr. Tomoaki Murakami from the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology has revealed that fibrinogen Aα-chain amyloidosis, a previously unreported disease in animals other than humans, is highly prevalent in Japanese squirrels (Sciurus lis). In this study, they compared the pathology with that of humans, and suggested the importance of Japanese squirrels in the comparative pathological analysis of fibrinogen Aα-chain amyloidosis. The researchers published their results on August 8th in the Journal of Pathology. Amyloidosis is a disease group in which amyloid, generated by misfolding ...

A new study highlights the potential of artificial DNA structures that, when fitted with antibodies, instruct the immune system to specifically target cancerous cells. Immunotherapy is viewed as an exceptionally promising weapon in the fight against cancer. In essence, the aim is to activate the body’s immune system in such a way that it identifies and destroys malignant cells. However, the destruction must be as effective and specific as possible, to avoid damaging healthy cells. A team of researchers from LMU, the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Helmholtz Munich have now published a new study in Nature Nanotechnology in which they present ...

AUBURN, AL – In July, as many enjoyed the hot weather at Alabama's gulf coast beaches, in the Leach Science Center, Auburn University's Department of Physics hosted an engaging scientific event. For the first time since 2016, the southern USA was home to the “Hands-On Workshop on Computational Biophysics” with Auburn University, for the first time, as its esteemed host. Under the guidance of Prof. Rafael Bernardi from Auburn University's Department of Physics and Prof. Emad Tajkhorshid of the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the workshop showcased expertise from ...

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common condition that affects up to 30% of adults in the general population. It is characterized by the accumulation of fat in the liver. It is often associated with other conditions, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. The new definition of metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) was proposed in 2020. MAFLD is diagnosed based on hepatic steatosis (fatty liver) and at least one of three metabolic risk abnormalities: overweight/obesity, type 2 diabetes, or evidence of metabolic dysregulation. A recent meta-analysis led by Ming-Hua Zheng from the First Affiliated Hospital ...

Oak Brook, IL – The August 2023 issue of SLAS Technology, the open access journal emphasizing scientific and technical advances across the life sciences, is now available. Volume 28, Issue 4, contains a review from the literature and eight full-length articles covering nanodiamonds, automated buffer exchange, epidermal growth factor (EGF) and other laboratory automation-related research. From the Literature Life sciences discovery and technology highlights The authors examine several areas of research within the literature to highlight significant developments ...

What if we could identify the earliest warning signs of cardiovascular disease from a simple saliva sample? Scientists think they have found a way to do so. Gum inflammation leads to periodontitis, which is linked with cardiovascular disease. The team used a simple oral rinse to see if levels of white blood cells — an indicator of gum inflammation — in the saliva of healthy adults could be linked to warning signs for cardiovascular disease. They found that high levels correlated with compromised flow-mediated dilation, an early indicator of poor arterial health. “Even in young healthy adults, low levels of oral inflammatory load may have an impact on cardiovascular ...

Lead exposure has long been a known health risk, especially for young children. Research has found that even at low levels, chronic exposure to lead can cause damage to the brain and other organs and cause problems with cognitive and motor skills. In response, public health officials have determined that there is no safe exposure level and have made great efforts to eliminate lead-based paint and lead pipes in homes and phase out the use of leaded gasoline. But another possible source of lead exposure in children has been largely overlooked: secondhand ...

Researchers at Texas A&M University will spearhead a groundbreaking project to revolutionize medication administration for pediatric patients, thanks to an approximately $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This pioneering initiative explores using additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, to create customized tablets tailored to the unique needs of young children. The project is an interdisciplinary collaboration of experts from the College of Engineering, the College of Pharmacy and the School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Traditional manufacturing methods yield mass-produced medicinal tablets ...

Overview Assistant Professor Yuya Hosoda of the Center for IT-Based Education (CITE), Toyohashi University of Technology developed a method for estimating the pitch of vocal cord vibrations of humans from call audio. In this method, the pitch is estimated by integrating the feature quantities extracted from the amplitude and phase spectra of speech on the complex plane. Through experiments, we have demonstrated that the proposed method is not only efficient for call audios whose frequency band is restricted by communication standards, but also works robustly in an environment with background ...

Niigata, Japan – our movements are controlled by multiple neural pathways that connect the brain and spinal cord. In particular, neurons in the cerebral cortex send commands to the motor neurons in the spinal cord and then to the muscles, thus eliciting the required movement. However, this flow of neural information is compromised in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)—a widespread progressive neurodegenerative disease in which the muscles gradually atrophy, making movement and breathing difficult. Moreover, a protein called TDP-43 has been found to abnormally ...

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 ...