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 ...

Ann Arbor, August 17, 2023 – According to the results of a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier, exposure to interpersonal violence throughout childhood or adulthood increases an individual’s chance of developing adult-onset diabetes by more than 20%. Data showed the risk level is similar among adult males and females and lower income Black and White Americans. Lead investigator Maureen Sanderson, PhD, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Meharry Medical College, explained, “While previous research has linked exposure to interpersonal violence with a higher risk for developing ...

Chandra Mohan, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Endowed Professor of biomedical engineering, is reporting the first use of the powerful imaging mass cytometry (IMC) to examine the kidneys of patients with lupus (systemic lupus erythematosus), an autoimmune disease that can affect multiple organs and become fatal, and to diagnose lupus nephritis (LN) in those patients.   LN is a severe inflammation of the kidneys and a major cause of death in lupus patients. Up to 60% of SLE patients will develop renal symptoms with 5–20% of those patients progressing to end stage kidney disease within 10 years.  IMC can showcase ...

Engineers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory are collaborating on nine projects awarded to universities under the DOE’s Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP) and Integrated Research Projects.   The projects were selected as part of DOE’s commitment to investing in nuclear energy technologies, universities and the development of the next generation of researchers and scientists. These projects will play a vital role in advancing nuclear technology, supporting early career faculty research activities and fostering student innovation at Argonne ...

SEATTLE – AUGUST 17, 2023 – The Medicaid expansion under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act resulted in a 19% annual increase in Medicaid-insured cancer patients participating in publicly funded clinical trials, according to researchers from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, the SWOG Statistics and Data Management Center and Columbia University. Published in JAMA Oncology, the study explored the impact of Medicaid expansion in 2014 and 2015 on cancer clinical trial participation. Researchers found that the 19% annual increase, compounded over time, resulted in 52% more patients with Medicaid insurance participating ...

Who’s responsible for upholding research integrity, mitigating misinformation or disinformation and increasing trust in research? Everyone – even those reporting on research – says a new article published by leading research integrity experts. In their paper published in the journal Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics, Dr Leslie McIntosh (Vice President Research Integrity, Digital Science) and Ms Cynthia Hudson Vitale (Director, Science Policy and Scholarship, Association of Research Libraries) call for improved policies and worldwide coordination between funding bodies, publishers, academic institutions, scholarly ...

UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA   New UCF Project Examines Key Role Soils Play in Keeping the Planet Cool The research, funded by a grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, will examine a method to keep carbon from escaping soils and trapping heat in Earth’s atmosphere. ORLANDO, Aug.17, 2023 – A new project from the University of Central Florida is looking to the soils for a way to cool the skies. Funded by a nearly $750,000 grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the research will examine a method to keep carbon from escaping soils and ...

August 17, 2023 Rotman Professors and PhD Students Honoured at Academic Conferences Toronto – Faculty and doctoral students at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management were honoured at recent academic conferences for their research and contributions. At the annual meeting of the American Accounting Association last week in Denver, Jee-Eun Shin, an assistant professor of accounting, received the Best Early Career Researcher in Management Accounting Award sponsored by the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants. ...

“Should I be taking a probiotic?” is a question that Maggie Stanislawski, PhD, assistant professor in the University of Colorado Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI), gets asked often.   The answer is complicated. Every person’s gut microbiome is unique, and many probiotic supplements sold in grocery stores may not effectively bolster gut health for everyone, she says. The researcher, who specializes in the role of the gut microbiome in obesity and cardiometabolic disease, instead points to the importance ...

The largest ever study of the genetics of the brain – encompassing some 36,000 brain scans – has identified more than 4,000 genetic variants linked to brain structure. The results of the study, led by researchers at the University of Cambridge, are published in Nature Genetics today. Our brains are very complex organs, with huge variety between individuals in terms of the overall volume of the brain, how it is folded and how thick these folds are. Little is known about how our genetic make-up shapes the development of the brain. To answer this question, a team led by researchers at the Autism Research ...

August 17, 2023—(BRONX, NY)—Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have found that the virus responsible for chikungunya fever can spread directly from cell to cell—perhaps solving the longstanding mystery of how the virus, now emerging as a major health threat, can manage to escape antibodies circulating in the bloodstream. The findings, published today in Nature Microbiology, could help in developing effective vaccines or treatments for chikungunya fever, a debilitating and increasingly common mosquito-borne disease. A Possible Explanation ...

A research team co-led by UCLA investigators has shown that an immunotherapy drug combination can be an effective second-line therapy for patients with an aggressive and deadly type of melanoma that is resistant to the widely used immunotherapy drugs known as PD-1 inhibitors. In clinical trials, the investigators found that the combination therapy can extend the amount of time patients live without their cancer worsening, known as progression-free survival, and helps overcome resistance to prior immunotherapies, allowing more patients to benefit from the treatment. The ...

Researchers led by Genshiro Sunagawa at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR) in Japan have shown that an animal’s stem cells possess the same level of cold resistance as the animal itself. Published August 17 in Cell Reports, the study focuses on mice with different hibernation-like characteristics, showing that those with the best resistance to cold temperatures have stems cells that generate energy differently than others. Beyond these immediate findings, the study establishes mouse stem cells as a practical model ...

To control our behaviour, the brain must be able to form associations. This involves, for example, associating a neutral external stimulus with a consequence following the stimulus (e.g., the hotplate glows red - you can burn your hand).  In this way, the brain learns what the implication of our handling of the first stimulus are. Associative learning is the basis for forming neural connections and gives stimuli their motivational force. It is essentially controlled by a brain region called the dopaminergic midbrain. This region ...

About The Study: In this survey study, the primary care physician vision testing rate was low and differed by insurance status among persons ages 3 to 17. Despite recommendations of yearly testing for children ages 3 to 5, less than half of those with private insurance received testing, with lower rates among those without private insurance. Authors: Olivia J. Killeen, M.D., of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, 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/jamaophthalmol.2023.3644) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional ...

About The Study: In this randomized clinical trial that included 95 patients, a preoperative walkthrough of a patient’s day of surgery using augmented reality decreased preoperative anxiety compared with traditional perioperative education and handouts, but there was no significant effect on postoperative anxiety, pain levels, or narcotic use. These findings suggest that augmented reality may serve as an effective means of decreasing preoperative patient anxiety. Authors: Michael G. Rizzo Jr., M.D., of the University of Miami, is the corresponding author.  To ...

To continue reducing the costs of solar energy and other clean energy technologies, scientists and engineers will likely need to focus, at least in part, on improving technology features that are not based on hardware, according to MIT researchers. They describe this finding and the mechanisms behind it in Nature Energy. While the cost of installing a solar energy system has dropped by more than 99 percent since 1980, this new analysis shows that “soft technology” features, such as the codified permitting practices, supply chain management techniques, and system design processes that go into deploying a solar energy plant, contributed only 10 to 15 percent of total ...

Québec City, August 17, 2023 – A large-scale international collaborative study lead by Professor Jacques Simard from Université Laval and Professor Douglas Easton at the University of Cambridge, UK, has identified new genes associated with breast cancer that could eventually be included in tests to identify women at increased risk.   Current genetic tests for breast cancer only consider a few genes, such as BRCA1, BRCA2, and PALB2. However, these only explain a minority of the genetic risk, suggesting that more genes remain to be identified.  The study found evidence for at least four new breast cancer risk genes, with suggestive evidence for many others. ...

In a new study, researchers at the Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), have used a novel imaging technique to pinpoint how strongly adjacent bases – the building blocks of DNA – stack up on top of each other in a single strand. The findings open up possibilities for building complex DNA nanodevices and unravelling fundamental aspects of DNA structure.  Behind the seamless running of every living cell lies DNA – the hereditary vehicle carrying information for its growth, functioning and reproduction. Each DNA strand is usually made up of four nucleotide bases – Adenine (A), Guanine (G), Thymine (T) and Cytosine ...

The simple view of reading (SVR) is a widely accepted theory that attempts to define the skills that contribute to early reading comprehension. It attributes a person’s reading comprehension ability to two skills—word recognition (decoding) and language comprehension. This theory has been tested in the context of second as well as foreign languages. However, SVR is known to have some limitations, especially for complex reading, such as second and foreign language (SFL). Recent reading research indicates that SVR needs to be expanded upon to include cognitive factors which may have an ...

TAMPA, Fla. — The Center for Immunization and Infection Research in Cancer at Moffitt Cancer Center is expanding its viral infection research in Africa. The cancer center has received a $5.5 million, five-year specialized research center grant (U54CA277834) from the National Cancer Institute to investigate virus-associated tumors that disproportionately impact men and women living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. Two-thirds of people living with HIV call sub-Saharan Africa home. Their immunosuppression from the virus that causes AIDS leaves them susceptible to infections that cause cancer and makes it more difficult to control viral infections, such as human papillomavirus ...

The National Institutes of Health has awarded $24 million in first-year funding to establish Maternal Health Research Centers of Excellence. Part of NIH’s Implementing a Maternal health and PRegnancy Outcomes Vision for Everyone (IMPROVE) initiative, the centers will develop and evaluate innovative approaches to reduce pregnancy-related complications and deaths and promote maternal health equity. The grants are expected to last seven years and total an estimated $168 million, pending the availability of funds. Compared to other high-income countries, the United States has a high rate of maternal deaths, with more than 1,200 such deaths occurring in 2021, the most recent year ...

Recent years have seen an explosive growth in mindfulness, which has been adapted from Buddhist meditation practices: in schools, the health services and workplaces, different forms of therapy based on mindfulness are on offer, and meditation apps such as Headspace and Ten Percent Happier are downloaded by millions of people all over the world. In other words, there is no doubt that mindfulness is fulfilling a need and that many feel that they are being helped by the techniques it offers. But according to PhD Odysseus Stone from the University of Copenhagen, many of the philosophical ...