Heliconius butterflies’ brains grew as they adopted a novel foraging behaviour, scientists at the University of Bristol have found. A region of their brain, known as the mushroom body due to its shape, are two to four times larger than those of their close relatives. The findings, published today in Nature Communications, suggest that the structure and function of the nervous system are closely linked to an organism's ecological niche and behaviour. Dr Stephen Montgomery of Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences explained: “Heliconius are the only butterflies known to collect and digest pollen, which gives them an adult source ...

New Haven, Conn. — While pembrolizumab is an approved treatment for patients with stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), only some patients respond to this therapy. Treatment failure, researchers say, is often caused by differences in the tumor microenvironment. An ongoing phase II study (KEYNOTE-495/KeyImPaCT) led by a researcher at Yale Cancer Center reveals that combining pembrolizumab with other treatments reduced the size of target tumors, resulting in a higher response rate for patients with advanced NSCLC. The new research was published July 10 in Nature Medicine. “We are excited to share these new ...

Every night, uncounted numbers of devices across the globe update their operating systems (OS), and everyday users log on expecting fast, secure connections and services to keep their increasingly online lives moving forward. But as artificial intelligence and other more complex systems come online, the foundation of all them is teetering. Every aspect of society — from government and industry to education and entertainment — relies on devices with stable operating systems. And every OS relies on ...

The National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have collectively awarded millions of dollars in grant funding to numerous Virginia Tech researchers who all have one thing in common.  They were awarded Emerging Social Aspects of Global Change seed funding. Since 2015, this funding has led to faculty from seven colleges and 15 departments collaborating and engaging in 10 research projects that address the social or policy aspects of major global environmental issues. Sponsored by Fralin Life Sciences Institute’s Global Change Center and the Institute ...

Imagine you just swallowed a pill containing a miniature camera that will help your doctor collect images to diagnose a condition you’ve been battling for years. No, it’s not something from the latest science fiction or Marvel Comics movie – it’s a technique called bioimaging. While traditional methods of bioimaging such as an MRI, CT scan, or an X-ray are more commonly known, the use of nanodevices is becoming more popular. They are less invasive and provide health care professionals with a closer look deep inside tissue. Researchers from Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering and College of Science are using their expertise ...

As utility-scale solar farms become more widespread as a source of renewable energy, Virginia Tech scientists are researching environmental consequences with respect to stormwater and the sediment and nutrients transported in runoff. With a $3.4 million grant from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, researchers from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences will lead a comprehensive six-year study to determine how utility-scale solar farms impact stormwater runoff and local soil and water quality throughout the state. “Solar is probably going to be the No. 1 land use change that will occur over the next decade in many parts of Virginia, particularly in existing ...

Papillary craniopharyngiomas (PCPs) are a rare type of brain tumor that cause substantial morbidity for patients. While surgery and radiation are often used to treat PCPs, incomplete removal of the tumor and toxicity from radiation can leave patients with life-long health challenges after treatment, including neuroendocrine dysfunction or vision or memory loss. Investigators from the Mass General Cancer Center, a member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, led the first multicenter treatment protocol in this rare tumor. The study was based on laboratory discoveries by Mass General Brigham researchers who studied the genetic drivers of PCP growth, ...

A groundbreaking study published today reveals the critical yet severely understudied factor of salinity changes in ocean and coastlines caused by climate change. The study was co-authored by an international team of researchers, including Dr. Cliff Ross, University of North Florida biology chair/professor, and Dr. Stacey Trevathan-Tackett, UNF biology graduate program alum and research faculty member at Deakin University in Australia. Changes in salinity, or salt content, due to climate change and land use can have potentially devastating impacts on vital coastal and estuarine ecosystems, yet this has rarely been studied until now. This new research provides valuable ...

Two University of Texas at Arlington faculty members have received Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program awards from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. Kevin Schug, Shimadzu Distinguished Professor of Analytical Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, will travel to Palacky University in Olomouc, Czech Republic, continuing a decades-long relationship that began during his days as a graduate student. Ling Xu, associate professor in the School of Social Work, will use the award to travel to Taiwan and embark on 10-month project to raise awareness about the ...

In a new study, researchers and members of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area are the first to publish evidence of wealth-driven patterns in maternal investment among ancient populations. Ancestors of the Muwekma Ohlone living 2,000 years ago at Kalawwasa Rummeytak in present-day Silicon Valley in California’s San Francisco Bay Area, placed high value on women’s economic contributions to their communities, according to the study. Women stayed in the villages in which they were born, and their male partners moved from their birth communities to join their wives’ families. Women’s intimate knowledge of the local ecology and female ...

Food insecurity rate hits 17% for the second time in 18 months WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Reported food insecurity has reached 17%, matching the rate last reached in March 2022, according to the June Consumer Food Insights Report. The new report also includes consumer changes in food spending as a result of a hypothetical recession and sentiments on artificial intelligence. The survey-based report out of Purdue University’s Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainabilityassesses food spending, consumer satisfaction ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 2023 MINNEAPOLIS – Older people who have little social contact with others may be more likely to have loss of overall brain volume, and in areas of the brain affected by dementia, than people with more frequent social contact, according to a study published in the July 12, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study does not prove that social isolation causes brain shrinkage; it only shows an association. “Social isolation is a growing problem for older ...

“Our data demonstrate that cetuximab plus radiotherapy represents an active treatment option for laCSCC, with manageable toxicity.” BUFFALO, NY- July 12, 2023 – A new research paper was published in Oncotarget's Volume 14 on July 7, 2023, entitled, “Effectiveness and toxicity of cetuximab with concurrent RT in locally advanced cutaneous squamous cell skin cancer: a case series.” Treatment for locally advanced cutaneous squamous cell cancers (laCSCC) remains poorly defined. Most laCSCC tumors express high levels of epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR). Cetuximab has activity in other EGFR expressing cancers and enhances the effectiveness ...

The University of Texas at Arlington received an Award of Excellence for Innovation from the International Parking & Mobility Institute (IPMI). The award was for the RAPID (Rideshare, Automation and Payment Integration Demonstration) program, a self-driving shuttle system for students and the general public that started in 2021. It was originally funded through the city of Arlington and a Federal Transit Administration grant, with additional support from the North Central Texas Council of Governments. Via Transportation Inc. and May Mobility also are partners in the program. RAPID, the first program in the United States to integrate on-demand, ...

The incidence of primary involuntary childlessness, the rate of women seeking treatment for infertility, as well as the success rate of assisted reproductive technology all increased in birth cohorts studied from 1916 to 1975, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Finn Egil Skjeldestad of the Arctic University of Norway. There have been tremendous advances in assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) over the past 50 years. In the new study, Dr. Skjeldestad analyzed data on 11,064 women born between 1916 and 1975 ...

Ice Age saber-tooth cats and dire wolves experienced a high incidence of bone disease in their joints, according to a study published July 12, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Hugo Schmökel of Evidensia Academy, Sweden and colleagues. Osteochondrosis is a developmental bone disease known to affect the joints of vertebrates, including humans and various domesticated species. However, the disease is not documented thoroughly in wild species, and published cases are quite rare. In this study, Schmökel and colleagues identify signs of this disease in fossil limb bones of Ice Age saber-tooth cats (Smilodon fatalis) ...

A new mathematical model of UK cat populations suggests that neutering of cats that belong to people not only affects the population dynamics of owned cats, but also affects feral, stray, and shelter subpopulations. Jenni McDonald of Cats Protection and co-authors present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on July 12. More than ten million cats live as owned pets in UK homes, and hundreds of thousands of additional cats live in shelters or as free-roaming feral or stray cats. Cats may transition from any of these subpopulations to another. However, while many prior studies have investigated cat population ...

Slow population declines might be going undetected, while later rates of extinction could increase exponentially ### Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0285945 Article Title: The rate of species extinction in declining or fragmented ecological communities Author Countries: Greece, USA Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work. END ...

Simulation study of how body shapes and sizes affected energetic efficiency helps explain relative success of early Polynesian voyaging ### Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0287290 Article Title: Estimated energetic demands of thermoregulation during ancient canoe passages from Tahiti to Hawaii and New Zealand, a simulation analysis Author Countries: USA, Australia, New Zealand Funding: AM received financial support from the Maritime Encounters (M21-0018) project funded by Sweden's Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. ...

Prosthetic limbs are the most common solution to replace a lost extremity. However, they are hard to control and often unreliable with only a couple of movements available. Remnant muscles in the residual limb are the preferred source of control for bionic hands. This is because patients can contract muscles at will, and the electrical activity generated by the contractions can be used to tell the prosthetic hand what to do, for instance, open or close. A major problem at higher amputation levels, such as above the elbow, is that not many muscles remain to command the many robotic joints needed to truly restore the function of an arm and hand. A multidisciplinary team of surgeons and engineers ...

On the Moon, there are raw materials that humanity could one day mine and use. Various space agencies, such as the European Space Agency (ESA), are already planning missions to better explore Earth’s satellite and find minerals. This calls for appropriate exploration vehicles. Swiss researchers led by ETH Zurich are now pursuing the idea of sending not just one solitary rover on an exploration tour, but rather an entire team of vehicles and flying devices that complement each other. The researchers equipped three ANYmal – a type of legged robot developed ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – For the first time, researchers have developed a model to estimate how much energy the original colonizers of New Zealand expended to maintain their body temperatures on the cold, harrowing ocean journey from Southeast Asia.   Results showed that people making the first voyages from Tahiti to New Zealand in sailing canoes would expend 3.3 to 4.8 times more energy on thermoregulation – the technical term for maintaining body temperature - than those making a trip of similar length to Hawaii.   The ocean route to New Zealand required much more energy for thermoregulation ...

AUKLAND, NZ and DURHAM, N.C. – Companion robots enhanced with artificial intelligence may one day help alleviate the loneliness epidemic, suggests a new report from researchers at Auckland, Duke, and Cornell Universities. Their report, appearing in the July 12 issue of Science Robotics, maps some of the ethical considerations for governments, policy makers, technologists, and clinicians, and urges stakeholders to come together to rapidly develop guidelines for trust, agency, engagement, and real-world efficacy. It also proposes a new way to measure whether a companion robot is helping someone. “Right now, all the evidence ...

Cognitive abilities not only vary among different species but also among individuals within the same species. It is expected that smarter individuals live longer, as they are likely to make better decisions, regarding habitat and food selection, predator avoidance, and infant care. To investigate the factors influencing life expectancy of wild gray mouse lemurs, researchers from the German Primate Center conducted a long-term study in Madagascar. They administered four different cognitive tests and two personality tests to 198 animals, while also measuring their weight and tracking their survival over several years. ...

Within the scope of a vast research program undertaken in coordination with the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities and the University of Liège, an international team—including scientists from the CNRS, Sorbonne University, and Université Grenoble Alpes—has revealed the artistic license exercised in two ancient Egyptian funerary paintings (dating to ~1,400 and ~1,200 BCE, respectively), as evident in newly discovered details invisible to the naked eye. Their findings are published in PLOS ONE (12 July). The language of ancient ...