Can the humble feijoa help the world tackle type 2 diabetes? University of Auckland scientists are investigating. With more than 200,000 people in New Zealand living with type 2 diabetes, prevention is key to tackling this important health issue. Could a solution be found growing in New Zealand backyards? The feijoa study, named FERDINAND, is a six-month weight-loss and maintenance programme, during which adults with raised blood sugar will be given about a gram of whole-fruit feijoa powder (or a placebo) each ...

New research has found irregular sleep patterns are associated with harmful bacteria in your gut. The study, published today in The European Journal of Nutrition, by researchers from King’s College London and ZOE, the personalised nutrition company, is the first to find multiple associations between social jet lag – the shift in your internal body clock when your sleeping patterns change between workdays and free days - and diet quality, diet habits, inflammation and gut microbiome composition in a single cohort. Previous research has shown that working shifts disrupts the body clock and can increase risk ...

Molecules that act as connected wheels can hold long molecular chains together to modify the properties of soft polymers. Rotaxanes are interlocked molecular structures with a linear ‘axle’ molecule penetrating one or more cyclic ‘wheel’ molecules. Bulky groups at the end of the axle prevent the wheels from coming off. Now, researchers at Hokkaido University have taken the previous achievements of this technology a step further, making macro-rotaxanes that have multicyclic wheels interlocked with several high-molecular-weight axles. They report their innovation in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition. Rotaxanes, initially regarded as ...

Mammography screening supported by artificial intelligence (AI) is a safe alternative to today’s conventional double reading by radiologists and can reduce heavy workloads for doctors. This has now been shown in an interim analysis of a prospective, randomised controlled trial, which addressed the clinical safety of using AI in mammography screening. The trial, led by researchers from Lund University in Sweden, has been published in The Lancet Oncology.  Each year around one million women in Sweden are called to mammography screening. Each screening examination is reviewed by two breast radiologists to ensure a high sensitivity, so called double reading. ...

Decades of research have left knowledge gaps about cells that regulate the immune system: Purdue and NIH Four decades of research have produced a vast pool of knowledge about regulatory T cells, a subset of our immune cells. Even so, scientists at Purdue University and the National Institutes of Health have identified 14 understudied T-reg proteins that merit increased attention for the molecular roles they play in disease onset. “Our lab studies the exact molecular mechanism underlying autoimmunity, infection and cancer,” said Majid Kazemian, associate professor of biochemistry in the College of Agriculture ...

About The Editorial: In this editorial, JAMA and JAMA Network journals join journals worldwide to call on health professionals to warn the public about the major danger to health and essential life support systems posed by the threat of nuclear war and urge action to prevent use of nuclear weapons. Authors: Chris Zielinski, of the University of Winchester, U.K., and World Association of Medical Editors, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this ...

ATLANTA, August 1, 2023 – A new study from researchers at the American Cancer Society (ACS) found monthly adult cancer diagnoses decreased by half in April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The largest decrease was for stage I cancers, resulting in a higher proportion of late-stage diagnoses. The study is the most comprehensive research to date about the effects of the first year of the pandemic on cancer diagnoses and stage in the nation. The paper was published today in the ...

Findings from the first-ever prospective trial including a randomized pathway comparing surgery to non-surgical treatment of malignant bowel obstruction (MBO) provide important evidence to help inform clinical decision-making in managing this frequent complication in patients with advanced cancer. Results include data on clinical outcomes and patient quality of life and are being reported in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology. The S1316 study, a hybrid design trial that included a randomized component, was led by the SWOG Cancer Research Network, a clinical trials group funded by the National Cancer Institute ...

Peer-reviewed / Randomised trial / People Planned interim safety analysis of the first randomised trial investigating the use of AI in a national breast cancer screening programme underscores the potential of AI to make mammography screening more accurate and efficient. Interim findings from a cohort of over 80,000 women in Sweden reveal AI-supported screening detected 20% more cancers compared with the routine double reading of mammograms by two breast radiologists. The use of AI did not increase false positives (when a mammogram ...

Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) announces the oldest swimming jellyfish in the fossil record with the newly named Burgessomedusa phasmiformis. These findings are announced in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.   Jellyfish belong to medusozoans, or animals producing medusae, and include today’s box jellies, hydroids, stalked jellyfish and true jellyfish. Medusozoans are part of one of the oldest groups of animals to have existed, called Cnidaria, a group which also includes ...

This press release is available online at: https://news.agu.org/press-release/earths-most-ancient-impact-craters-are-disappearing/ AGU press contact: Rebecca Dzombak, news@agu.org (UTC-4 hours) Contact information for the researchers: Matthew S. Huber, University of the Western Cape, mhuber@uwc.ac.za (UTC+2 hours) WASHINGTON — Earth’s oldest craters could give scientists critical information about the structure of the early Earth and the composition of bodies in the solar system as well as help to interpret crater records on other ...

The silver rice rat, an endangered species endemic to the Florida Keys, makes its home as close to the shoreline as possible for easy access to its low-tide marine species diet. It is this proximity to the water that prompted a team of scientists at the University of Florida to examine the rats’ movement in correlation with historical tidal data over 17 years. The sea level rose 0.142 meters between 2004 and 2021, and the researchers also found that the rats moved to higher ground. In fact, the rats ...

By Adam Russell   A new research study shows pecans may help prevent obesity and reduce inflammation. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Laura McKenzie) “Obesity and diabetes numbers are increasing in modern society worldwide, and the trend in high fat diet consumption is one of the main reasons besides lifestyle and genetic predisposition,” said Luis Cisneros-Zevallos, Ph.D., professor of horticulture and food science in the Department of Horticultural Sciences in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and ...

WASHINGTON (August 1, 2023)— New analysis from researchers at the George Washington University links lead exposure either in utero or during childhood with an increased risk of engaging in criminal behavior in adulthood. While prior research has found an association between lead exposure and criminal behavior at the ​​aggregated population level, this is the first review to bring together the existing data at the individual-level of exposure and effects. The first systematic review of available studies that address links between individual lead exposure and crime, or other antisocial behaviors, the research team’s analysis included 17 ...

A study conducted at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and 11 other hospitals and practices across the United States shows that use of low-dose atropine eyedrops, commonly used in a higher dose to treat lazy eye, was no better than a placebo at slowing myopia (nearsightedness) progression and elongation of the eye among children treated for two years.   The first randomized controlled trial of its kind aimed at identifying an effective way to manage myopia was published last week in JAMA Ophthalmology. It was conducted by the Pediatric Eye Disease Investigator Group and funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI).    “We found, interestingly, and honestly ...

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- A proposed machine learning framework and expanded use of blockchain technology could help counter the spread of fake news by allowing content creators to focus on areas where the misinformation is likely to do the most public harm, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York. The research led by Thi Tran, assistant professor of management information systems at Binghamton University’s School of Management, expands on existing studies by offering tools for recognizing patterns in misinformation and helping ...

BOSTON – Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a founding member of the Mass General Brigham health system, officially opened the Legorreta Center for Clinical Transplant Tolerance, the first-of-its kind center in the world dedicated to preventing organ rejection after transplant surgery without the use of lifelong immunosuppressive medications. Immunosuppressive medications prevent the immune system from rejecting a transplanted organ, but come with serious side effects, increasing the chance of infections and other illnesses like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. The mission of the Legorreta Center is to eliminate these risks by eliminating ...

Abstract Research investigating social media use typically focus on late adolescents and young adults, despite a growing number of early adolescents, 93% to 97%—having at least one social media platform. Also, early adolescents are more likely to engage with newer sites, such as Snapchat and Instagram, than older platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Given the evolving landscape of social media, the present study examines the impact of the use of various social media platforms, along with its moderating effects, on adolescents’ academic achievement, using a sample of N = 1,459 early adolescents. Results were such that, as frequency ...

AURORA, Colo. (July 31, 2023) – Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have officially identified a central conduit to obesity: fructose. While fructose’s contribution to obesity is well-known, a study published today in Philosophical Transactions aggregates a large amount of work to make a full argument for how fructose drives obesity and diseases such as diabetes and fatty liver disease. “This is an in-depth review on a hypothesis that puts nature at the center of weight ...

In 2016, recognizing that lack of research in female animals was hampering the success of treatments for mood disorders, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) changed its policy for basic research to include sex as a biological variable for basic research, a move that triggered an explosion of research into sex differences. “Building a strong unbiased foundation of literature will help uncover more effective and sex-specific biomarkers for depression onset and target better treatment,” said Georgia Hodes, assistant professor in the School of Neuroscience, part of the Virginia Tech College of Science. Hodes and co-author Dawson Kropp, a Ph.D. ...

Carbon dioxide levels in Earth’s atmosphere — and, consequently, ocean temperatures — are rising. How high and how fast ocean temperatures can rise can be learned from temperature measurements of ancient oceans. At the same time, energy exploration also relies on knowing the thermal history of oil and gas source rocks, which is often difficult to determine. One of the most promising techniques for measuring ancient ocean temperatures and basin thermal histories relies on the co-enrichment of rare heavy oxygen and heavy carbon ...

Losing the ability to see clearly, and losing the ability to think or remember clearly, are two of the most dreaded, and preventable, health issues associated with getting older. Now, a new study lends further weight to the idea that vision problems and dementia are linked.  In a sample of nearly 3,000 older adults who took vision tests and cognitive tests during home visits, the risk of dementia was much higher among those with eyesight problems – including those who weren’t able ...

August 1, 2023, Mountain View, CA – The SETI Institute is proud to announce that Dr. John Rummel will receive the prestigious 2023 Drake Award, recognizing his extraordinary and innovative programmatic contributions and unwavering advocacy for SETI and astrobiology. Rummel’s illustrious career has included roles at NASA Headquarters, where he served as Senior Scientist for Astrobiology, Planetary Protection Officer, Deputy Chief of the Mission from Planet Earth Study Office, and Program Scientist for SETI/High Resolution Microwave Survey. Despite sometimes facing significant opposition, Rummel has been an unwavering supporter of SETI science and funding, working to ...

Chestnut Hill, Mass. (08/01/2023 - Boston College Assistant Professor of Biology Emrah Altindis has received a two-year, $275,000-grant from the Beatson Foundation to explore the role of gut microbes and viruses triggering the autoimmunity of Type 1 diabetes. “Our lab is extremely grateful for the generous funding bestowed upon us by the Beatson Foundation,” Altindis said. “The receipt of this grant has evoked a profound sense of both excitement and gratitude within our team. We recognize the significant impact this funding will have on our research endeavors, particularly in the field of Type 1 Diabetes.” Funding for the project, titled ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A patch of ocean in the North Atlantic is stubbornly cooling while much of the planet warms. This anomaly — dubbed the "cold blob" — has been linked to changes in ocean circulation, but a new study found changes in large-scale atmospheric patterns may play an equally important role, according to an international research team led by Penn State. “People often think the atmosphere has a very short memory, but here we provide evidence that atmospheric circulation change is significant enough to induce some long-term impact on the climate system,” ...