SAN ANTONIO — July 5, 2023 —The Southwest Research Institute-led Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) aboard ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) spacecraft has successfully completed its initial commissioning following the April 14 launch. The UVS instrument is one of three instrument projects comprising NASA’s contribution to the JUICE mission. The mission’s science goals focus on Jupiter and its system, making multiple flybys of the planet’s large, ocean-bearing satellites with a particular emphasis on investigating Ganymede ...

The first clinical trial of a three-month tuberculosis (TB) treatment regimen is closing enrollment because of a high rate of unfavorable outcomes with the investigational course of treatment. AIDS Clinical Trials Group 5362, also known as the CLO-FAST trial, sought to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a three-month clofazimine- and high-dose rifapentine-containing regimen. An interim data analysis showed that participants taking the investigational regimen experienced ongoing or recurring TB at rates above thresholds set in the study protocol. Based on these findings, ...

Voters in North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member states are far more willing to militarily defend another country if the country joins NATO, versus if the same country does not join NATO, according to a study. To explore the possible consequences of expanding NATO membership, Michael Tomz and colleagues surveyed 14,000 voters in 13 NATO countries. Each survey participant was presented with a hypothetical Russian attack on one of four possible targets: Bosnia, Finland, Georgia, or Sweden—the four countries (other than Ukraine) furthest along in their bids for NATO accession at the time of ...

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has launched the Center for Ophthalmic Artificial Intelligence and Human Health, the first of its kind in New York and one of the first in the United States. The Center is dedicated to advancing artificial intelligence (AI) in the field of ophthalmology, further positioning the Mount Sinai Health System as a leader in providing patient care through pioneering innovations and technologies. In partnership with the Windreich Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Health at Icahn Mount Sinai, the Center aims to ...

New research reveals that sunscreen contamination may be less harmful to wildlife than previously thought. This study by Aaron Boyd, a PhD candidate at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, demonstrates how exposure to sunscreen is actually a low risk for small aquatic animals compared to some of the suncream’s individual chemicals. Sunscreens contain ultraviolet filters (UVFs) which have been found to be toxic to marine life such as corals, leading to the ban of some UVFs in Hawaii and Palau. If sunscreen is applied to the skin before swimming in lakes and rivers, these UVFs and other chemicals will leach into surrounding waters. Mr ...

Researchers have been testing real-life Batman-style gadgets to eradicate moth pests from greenhouses, including bat-inspired flying drones that hunt down and destroy moths – but new research reveals that the noise from drones can alter moth flight behaviour. “The idea of using drones as an alternative solution to eliminating moths all started in the bedroom of one of the co-owners of the PATS startup company,” says Dayo Jansen, a PhD student from student from Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands. ...

Embargoed until 8 a.m. ET/ 7 a.m. CT on Wednesday, July 5, 2023 DALLAS, July 5, 2023 — The COVID-19 pandemic radically changed the way health care professionals serve their patients. Over the past three years, a huge proportion of care has shifted to the virtual landscape as clinicians and patients search for a safe, reliable way to receive needed care.[1] As part of its longstanding commitment to ensuring equitable access to high-quality health care, the American Heart Association has launched its first individual ...

Imagine a world where computers can unravel the mysteries of quantum mechanics, enabling us to study the behavior of complex materials or simulate the intricate dynamics of molecules with unprecedented accuracy. Thanks to a pioneering study led by Professor Zoe Holmes and her team at EPFL, we are now closer to that becoming a reality. Working with researchers at Caltech, the Free University of Berlin, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, they have found a new way to teach a quantum computer how to understand and predict the behavior of quantum systems, even with a few simple examples. Quantum neural networks (QNNs) The researchers worked on “quantum neural networks” ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Engineers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed a new test that can predict the durability of cement in seconds to minutes – rather than the hours it takes using current methods. The test measures the behavior of water droplets on cement surfaces using computer vision on a device that costs less than $200. The researchers said the new study could help the cement industry move toward rapid and automated quality control of their materials. The results of the study, led by Illinois civil and environmental engineering professor Nishant ...

New research out of VCU Massey Cancer Center indicates that many adolescent and young adult kidney cancer survivors are at a significantly elevated risk for heart issues. Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of health complications and death among adolescents and young adults (AYAs) diagnosed with cancer, where AYAs are characterized as patients between the ages of 15 and 39. A study publishing July 5 in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network assessed the incidence and risk of hypertension — high blood pressure — and heart failure among AYA patients diagnosed ...

The transfer of pigs from one place to another poses the risk of spreading infectious diseases. Knowing how holdings (e.g., farms, markets, etc.) are connected is therefore of crucial importance. In a study by the Complexity Science Hub, the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, and the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES), researchers are now drawing a map of the Austrian pig trade for the first time. Every year, around 250,000 transfers of pigs take place in Austria. Each of these transfers carries a certain risk of spreading swine infectious diseases. To identify possible risks of disease spread and ...

Orangutans are dependent on their mothers longer than any other non-human animal, nursing until they are at least six years old and living with her for up to three years more, learning how to find, choose, and process the exceedingly varied range of foods they eat. But how do orangutans that have left their mothers and now live far from their natal ranges, where the available foods may be very different, decide what to eat and figure out how to eat it? Now, an international team of authors has shown that in such cases, migrants follow the rule ‘observe, and do as the locals do’. The results are published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. “Here we ...

A research group from Japan has developed a method to produce highly active mRNA vaccines at high purity using a unique cap to easily separate the desired capped mRNA. This ‘Purecap’ technique extracted up to 100% pure Cap2-type mRNA, which showed 3-4 times better production of the protein that stimulates the immune system. These results open up the possibility of purer vaccines with a lower risk of inflammation caused by impurities. Their findings were published in Nature Communications.  mRNA vaccines have been used successfully as therapy against variants ...

WASHINGTON – Georgetown University Medical Center neuroscientists say the brain’s auditory lexicon, a catalog of verbal language, is actually located in the front of the primary auditory cortex, not in back of it -- a finding that upends a century-long understanding of this area of the brain. The new understanding matters because it may impact recovery and rehabilitation following a brain injury such as a stroke. The findings appear in Neurobiology of Language on July 5, 2023. Riesenhuber’s lab showed the existence of a lexicon for written words at the base of the brain’s left hemisphere in a region ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Elephants eat plants. That’s common knowledge to biologists and animal-loving schoolchildren alike. Yet figuring out exactly what kind of plants the iconic herbivores eat is more complicated. A new study from a global team that included Brown conservation biologists used innovative methods to efficiently and precisely analyze the dietary habits of two groups of elephants in Kenya, down to the specific types of plants eaten by which animals in the group. Their findings on the habits of ...

Endometriosis is linked to a reduction in fertility in the years preceding a definitive surgical diagnosis of the condition, according to new research published today (Wednesday) in Human Reproduction [1], one of the world’s leading reproductive medicine journals.   In the first study to look at birth rates in a large group of women who eventually received a surgical verification of endometriosis, researchers in Finland found that the number of first live births in the period before diagnosis was half that of women without the painful condition. ...

Biomechanical studies on the arachnid-like front “legs” of an extinct apex predator show that the 2-foot (60-centimeter) marine animal Anomalocaris canadensis was likely much weaker than once assumed. One of the largest animals to live during the Cambrian, it was probably agile and fast, darting after soft prey in the open water rather than pursuing hard-shelled creatures on the ocean floor. The study is published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. First discovered in the late 1800s, Anomalocaris canadensis—which means “weird shrimp from Canada” in Latin—has long been thought to be responsible ...

Changes in water conditions interact to affect how Trinidadian guppies protect themselves from predators, scientists at the University of Bristol have discovered. Known stressors, such as increased temperature and reduced visibility, when combined, cause this fish to avoid a predator less, and importantly, form looser protective shoals. The findings, published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, show guppies’ responses are more affected by the interaction of these stressors than if they acted independently. Natural ...

New research reveals that wild birds living in vineyards can be highly susceptible to contamination by triazole fungicides, more so than in other agricultural landscapes. Exposure to these fungicides at a field-realistic level were found to disrupt hormones and metabolism, which can impact bird reproduction and survival. “We found that birds can be highly contaminated by triazoles in vineyards,” says Dr Frédéric Angelier, Senior Researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research, France. “This contamination was much higher in vineyards relative to other crops, emphasizing that contaminants may especially put birds at risk in these ...

UNDER STRICT EMBARGO UNTIL 16:00 LONDON TIME (BST) / 11:00 (US ET) ON TUESDAY 4TH JULY 2023   Analysis of global tracking data for 77 species of petrel has revealed that a quarter of all plastics potentially encountered in their search for food are in remote international waters – requiring international collaboration to address.   The extensive study assessed the movements of 7,137 individual birds from 77 species of petrel, a group of wide-ranging migratory seabirds including the Northern Fulmar and European Storm-petrel, and the Critically Endangered Newell’s Shearwater. This is ...

New study reveals the areas most at risk of plastic exposure by the already endangered seabirds. The study, now published in Nature Communications, brings together more than 200 researchers worldwide around a pressing challenge, widely recognized as a growing threat to marine life: the pollution of oceans by plastic. Coordinated by Dr. Maria Dias, researcher at the Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (cE3c) at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (Ciências ULisboa), ...

New research suggests that the use of an omega-3 rich oil called “ahiflower oil” can prevent damage to honey bee mitochondria caused by neonicotinoid pesticides. This research is part of an ongoing project by PhD student Hichem Menail of the Université de Moncton in New Brunswick, Canada. “Pesticides are a major threat to insect populations and as insects are at the core of ecosystem richness and balance, any loss in insect biodiversity can lead to catastrophic outcome,” says Mr Menail, adding that pesticide-related pollinator declines are also a huge concern for food crops globally. Imidacloprid, ...

Global efforts to reduce infectious disease rates must have a greater focus on older children and adolescents after a shift in disease burden onto this demographic, according to a new study. The research, led by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, has found that infectious disease control has largely focused on children aged under five, with scarce attention on young people between five and 24 years old. Published in The Lancet, the study found three million children and adolescents die from infectious diseases every year, equivalent to one death every 10 seconds. It looked at data across 204 countries ...

In appearance, the human brain’s outermost layer, called the cortex, is a maze of tissue folds. The peaks or raised surfaces of these folds, called gyri, play an important role in the proper functioning of the brain. Improper gyrification—or the development of gyri—has been implicated in various neurological disorders, one of them being the debilitating and widespread mental illness­, major depressive disorder (MDD). Although prior studies have shown that abnormal cortical folding patterns are associated with MDD, ...

The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) has announced today that it will award the lifetime honor of EMBO Membership to Luísa Figueiredo, group leader at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes (iMM, Lisbon, Portugal), in recognition of the excellence of her research and outstanding achievements in the life sciences. EMBO is an international organization of more than 2000 life scientists in Europe and around the world, committed to build a European research environment where scientists can achieve their best work. Aside from Luísa Figueiredo, 68 other EMBO Members have been elected this year. Luísa ...