Raymond N. DuBois, M.D., Ph.D., director of MUSC Hollings Cancer Center, has been inducted as a fellow into the Royal College of Physicians (RCP). DuBois traveled to London, England, for the ceremony in July. He had been elected to the prestigious body prior to the COVID pandemic, which delayed the induction ceremony. The Royal College of Physicians was established in 1518 by a royal charter from King Henry VIII. The college's founding aim was to professionalize physicians through an academic body that required a degree and an exam before ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE Monday, July 31, 2023 Noon EDT Contact NIH Office of Communications and Public Liaison NIH News Media Branch  301-496-5787 NIH launches long COVID clinical trials through RECOVER Initiative, opening enrollment Today, the National Institutes of Health launched and is opening enrollment for phase 2 clinical trials that will evaluate at least four potential treatments for long COVID, with additional clinical trials to test at least seven more treatments expected in the coming months. Treatments ...

Brittany Johnson-Matthews, Assistant Professor, Computer Science, received funding from the National Science Foundation for: "Conference: VL/HCC 2023 Graduate Consortium." This award will support the Graduate Consortium at this year's IEEE Conference on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC), which will be held in Washington, D.C. October 2-6, 2023.  Johnson-Matthews said, "This funding will support the ability for students across the country to come together, network, share their research, and curate advice on completing their PhD from senior members of the VL/HCC community." VL/HCC ...

Wang Conducting Finite Temperature Simulation Of Non-Markovian Quantum Dynamics Fei Wang, Assistant Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry, received funding from the National Science Foundation for the project: "Finite temperature simulation of non-Markovian quantum dynamics in condensed phase using quantum computers." For this research, Wang will develop efficient quantum algorithms to perform condensed phase quantum dynamics simulations on quantum computers.  Many important physical and chemical processes occur in the condensed phase, spanning chemical reactions in solutions, charge transfer at semiconductor interfaces, ...

(Boston) – Tuberculosis (TB) disproportionately affects vulnerable populations including those with limited economic resources, HIV patients, those whose diet is deficient in nutrients and others. Resistant TB (MDR TB) does not respond to first line medications and is difficult to treat, requiring long regimens of 15-20 months that are associated with significant side effects and poor outcomes. Recently, new six-month regimens have been shown to have better results than the long-term treatments, with improved quality of life and health equity. But these novel regimens have not yet been adopted widely in the United States. ...

WASHINGTON, July 31, 2023 — Concrete is the most important building material on Earth, but its production causes a MASSIVE amount of global carbon emissions. Join George as he discovers how a surprising discovery in 1973 could dramatically change how we make concrete forever. https://youtu.be/fEt92F1c730 Reactions is a video series produced by the American Chemical Society and PBS Digital Studios. Subscribe to Reactions at http://bit.ly/ACSReactions and follow us on Twitter @ACSReactions. The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ ...

People solve new problems readily without any special training or practice by comparing them to familiar problems and extending the solution to the new problem. That process, known as analogical reasoning, has long been thought to be a uniquely human ability. But now people might have to make room for a new kid on the block. Research by UCLA psychologists shows that, astonishingly, the artificial intelligence language model GPT-3 performs about as well as college undergraduates when asked to solve the sort of reasoning problems that typically appear on intelligence tests and standardized tests such as the SAT. The study is published in Nature Human Behaviour. But the paper’s authors ...

About The Study: In this study including 860,000 soldiers, rates of new-onset mental health conditions were higher among individuals with a history of military-related traumatic brain injury (TBI) compared with those without. Moreover, risk for suicide was both directly and indirectly associated with history of TBI.   Authors: Lisa A. Brenner, Ph.D., of the VHA Rocky Mountain Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center in Aurora, Colorado, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link ...

About The Study: This study found significant racial and ethnic disparities in attrition from M.D.-Ph.D. training, where Black students had greater than 50% higher odds of leaving M.D.-Ph.D. training than their peers. Notably, compared with 17% of white students, 29% of Black M.D.-Ph.D. students did not complete their training.  Authors: Mytien Nguyen, M.S., of the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, 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/jamainternmed.2023.2822) Editor’s ...

About The Study: The findings of this study of more than 500,000 children suggest that there is no evidence of a difference in math and reading scores over grades 2 to 11 among children born between 39 and 40 weeks’ gestation, and overall no evidence of better scores among those born at 41 weeks’ gestation compared with 40 weeks’ gestation. The results can further inform decisions on delivery timing at term birth by offering insights into long-term associations of delivery timing with cognitive development and school achievement.  Authors: George L. Wehby, M.P.H., Ph.D., of ...

Using energy from light to activate natural enzymes can help scientists create new-to-nature enzymatic reactions that support eco-friendly biomanufacturing — the production of fuels, plastics, and valuable chemicals from plants or other biological systems. Applying this photoenzymatic approach, researchers have developed a clean, efficient way to synthesize crucial chemical building blocks known as chiral amines, solving a longstanding challenge in synthetic chemistry. The study, published in Nature Catalysis, ...

Many substances change their properties when they are cooled below a certain critical temperature. Such a phase transition occurs, for example, when water freezes. However, in certain metals there are phase transitions that do not exist in the macrocosm. They arise because of the special laws of quantum mechanics that apply in the realm of nature’s smallest building blocks. It is thought that the concept of electrons as carriers of quantized electric charge no longer applies near these exotic phase transitions. Researchers at the University of Bonn and ETH Zurich have now ...

(Boston)—In the face of ongoing political threats to the rights and well-being of sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations, public health and health care institutions and practitioners must explicitly address the needs of marginalized populations while ensuring that those with multiple marginalized identities are well represented in research, according to a commentary in JAMA Network Open.  “If we continue to exclude SGM in research, we will remain oblivious to the troubles they face in achieving health and well-being,” said lead author Carl G. Streed, Jr., MD, MPH, FACP, ...

An article to be published on July 31 in Nature Ecology & Evolution reveals that Luzio, the oldest human skeleton found in São Paulo state (Brazil), was a descendant of the ancestral population that settled the Americas at least 16,000 years ago and gave rise to all present-day Indigenous peoples, such as the Tupi. Based on the largest set of Brazilian archeological genomic data, the study reported in the article also offers an explanation for the disappearance of the oldest coastal communities, who built the icons of Brazilian archeology known as sambaquis, huge mounds of shells and fishbones used as dwellings, cemeteries and territorial boundaries. Archeologists often ...

The first bees evolved on an ancient supercontinent more than 120 million years ago, diversifying faster and spreading wider than previously suspected, a new study shows. Led by Washington State University researchers, the study provides a new best estimate for when and where bees first evolved. Newly published in the journal Current Biology, the project reconstructed the evolutionary history of bees, estimated their antiquity, and identified their likely geographical expansion around the world. The results indicate their point of origin was in western Gondwana, an ancient supercontinent that at that time included today's continents of Africa and South America. “There’s ...

Link to Google Drive folder containing images, videos and caption/credit information: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19LP7UZbVKkTXSFds6DaKSy1lp014Hw4z?usp=sharing   Link to release: https://www.washington.edu/news/2023/07/31/heliolinc3d/   FROM: James Urton University of Washington +1 206-543-2580 jurton@uw.edu      Ranpal Gill Vera C. Rubin Observatory +1 520-309-6195 rgill@lsst.org   Note: Researcher contact information at the end     For ...

What makes a brilliant scientist? Who are the people behind the greatest discoveries of our time? Connecting art and science, photographer Herlinde Koelbl seeks the answers in this English translation of the German book Fascination of Science, an indelible collection of portraits of and interviews with sixty pioneering scientists of the twenty-first century. Koelbl's approach is intimate and accessible, and her highly personal interviews with her subjects reveal the forces (as well as the personal quirks) that motivate the scientists' work; for example, one wakes up at 3 am because ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists have identified a protein that plays a pivotal role in the action of several emerging cancer therapies. The researchers say the discovery will likely aid efforts to fine-tune the use of immunotherapies against several challenging cancers. They report their findings in the journal Cancer Research.  “Most anticancer drugs cause cancer cells to shrivel up and die in a controlled process known as apoptosis. But apoptosis does not usually strongly activate immune cells,” said David Shapiro, a professor ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE A new review paper co-authored by two Johns Hopkins pain experts suggests that scrambler therapy, a noninvasive pain treatment,  can yield significant relief for approximately 80%–90% of patients with chronic pain, and it may be more effective than another noninvasive therapy: transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). The write-up was published online July 13 in The New England Journal of Medicine. Scrambler therapy, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2009, administers electrical stimulation through the skin via electrodes placed in areas of the body above and below where chronic pain is felt. The goal is to capture the nerve endings ...

New York, NY (July 31, 2023)—Psychosocial stress profoundly affects people’s lives globally, not least because it can be a critical risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Thanks to an $11.5 million award renewal from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health, distinguished researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and elsewhere aim to gain a deeper understanding of how stress influences cardiovascular health. “To address residual cardiovascular risk in patients, our research program aims to bolster our mechanistic understanding ...

You know that freeze-ray gun that “Batman” villain Mr. Freeze uses to “ice” his enemies? A University of Virginia professor thinks he may have figured out how to make one in real life. The discovery – which, unexpectedly, relies on heat-generating plasma – is not meant for weaponry, however. Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Patrick Hopkins wants to create on-demand surface cooling for electronics inside spacecraft and high-altitude jets. “That’s the primary problem right now,” Hopkins said. “A lot of electronics on board heat up, but they have no way to cool down.” The U.S. Air Force likes the prospect of a freeze ...

PULLMAN, Wash. –The origin of bees is tens of millions of years older than most previous estimates, a new study shows.  A team led by Washington State University researchers traced the bee genealogy back more than 120 million years to an ancient supercontinent, Gondwana, which included today’s continents of Africa and South America. In a study that proposes a new evolutionary history of bees, the researchers found evidence that bees originated earlier, diversified faster and spread wider than many scientists previously suspected. They published their findings in the journal Current ...

Research Highlights: An analysis of data from seven studies involving more than 19,000 adults in the United States, Korea and Japan found a clear association between increases in systolic (top-number) blood pressure and the number of alcoholic beverages consumed daily. Even people who drank one alcoholic beverage per day showed a link to higher blood pressure when compared to non-drinkers, reinforcing the American Heart Association’s advice to limit alcohol intake and to not start drinking alcohol if you do not already. Embargoed until ...

A new study from Tulane University has identified a new treatment for a chronic immune system disease that can prevent children from eating. Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is triggered by food allergies or airborne allergens which causes a type of white blood cell, eosinophils, to build up in the lining of the esophagus. This causes the esophagus to shorten and the esophageal wall to thicken, making swallowing difficult and causing food to get stuck in the throat. The disease occurs in an estimated 1 in 2,000 adults but more frequently affects children (1 in 1,500) where symptoms can be harder to diagnose and pose greater risks as difficulty feeding can lead to malnutrition, weight loss and ...

Postpartum prescriptions for oxycodone were not associated with increased risk of longer-term opioid use compared to codeine prescriptions, according to new research published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.221351. Over the last 10 years, there has been a shift to fewer codeine prescriptions and an increase in prescriptions for stronger opioids, such as hydrocodone, hydromorphone and oxycodone for patients postpartum. “This occurred in part ...