Irony has become a medium for the spread of toxic ideas online, new analysis shows. The use of irony is growing in both contemporary politics and radical online communities because it helps people to make sense of and navigate major political and economic changes, researchers have said. Ideas, jokes, memes, images are emerging as an animating force for new social movements and are now inextricably intertwined with the rise of the alt-right. The study says examining irony can help understand how recent influential political ...

June 26, 2023 - New Orleans - Ochsner Digital Medicine has achieved Validation for Savings by the Validation Institute, an independent non-profit organization. The Institute confirmed in a new propensity-matched study that members of Ochsner Connected Health’s chronic disease management program have lower per member per month costs than similar non-participants. "The Validation Institute has recognized what our clients and thousands of Ochsner Digital Medicine members know – this digital platform empowers members to save money, which is achieved through managing their chronic conditions ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. ¾ A Mayo Clinic study published in Journal of Translational Medicine evaluated the use of genomic testing broadly for rare diseases. With the increased use of genomic testing such as multi-gene panels, exome sequencing and genome sequencing in the past decade, there is a greater opportunity to better diagnose and treat patients with rare diseases. According to the National Institutes of Health, as many as 10,000 distinct rare diseases exist and an estimated 25-30 million Americans are affected by one of them. In the four-year Mayo Clinic study, researchers evaluated 1,152 patients with rare ...

The ISSCR supports research with embryo models derived from human pluripotent stem cells that is conducted with scientific and ethical rigor. ISSCR encourages researchers to continue to follow the ISSCR Guidelines for Stem Cell Research and Clinical Translation when considering research in this emerging area. Recent work presented at the ISSCR 2023 Annual Meeting in Boston, USA this month and additional research posted online as preprints shortly thereafter highlights the rapid pace of progress in the development of stem cell-based ...

The gigantic, slimy salamanders known as hellbenders, once the apex predators of many freshwater streams, have been in decline for decades, their population constantly shrinking. No one knew why. William Hopkins, professor in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation and director of the Global Change Center at Virginia Tech, suspected the hellbenders’ plight had connections with environmental changes engineered by humans. Hellbender males select nesting sites on stream bottoms and guard the eggs laid there by females — and occasionally the salamander dads snack on the eggs, consuming ...

Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 26 June 2023 Annals of Internal Medicine Tip Sheet @Annalsofim Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of the organization they represent. ---------------------------- 1. ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The rate at which women eliminate alcohol from their bloodstream is largely predicted by their lean body mass, although age plays a role, too, scientists found in a new study. Women with obesity – and those who are older – clear alcohol from their systems 52% faster than women of healthy weights and those who are younger, the study found. Lean body mass is defined in the study – published in the journal Alcohol Clinical and Experimental Research – as one’s ...

Many of the world’s largest aquatic food producers are highly vulnerable to human-induced environmental change, with some of the highest-risk countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa demonstrating the lowest capacity for adaptation, a landmark study has shown.  The study shows that more than 90% of global “blue” food production, in both capture fisheries and aquaculture, faces substantial risks from environmental change, with several leading countries in Asia and the United States set to face the greatest threats to production. The authors behind the new paper produced the first-ever global analysis ...

Some truffle producers in the eastern U.S. intending to grow European black truffles –scientific name, Tuber melanosporum — are also accidentally cultivating winter truffles — Tuber brumale — a related species that looks nearly identical but sells at a lower price, according to a new study from truffle researchers at the University of Florida and Michigan State University. In the U.S. and around the globe, European black truffles are produced commercially in truffle orchards, which contain trees ...

GeneDx (Nasdaq: WGS), a leader in delivering improved health outcomes through genomic and clinical insights, today published a paper in Nature Methods, titled “Multiscale analysis of pangenomes enables improved representation of genomic diversity for repetitive and clinically relevant genes,” in which researchers developed a new computational tool, the PanGenome Research-Tool Kit (PGR-TK), for scalable analysis of clinically relevant genes that were previously too complex to analyze. “While ...

Dennis Charney, MD, the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and President for Academic Affairs of the Mount Sinai Health System, has received the prestigious Donald Klein Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society for Clinical Psychopharmacology (ASCP). The award was presented to Dr. Charney during the ASCP’s annual meeting on Wednesday, May 31. The award is presented annually to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of clinical psychopharmacology. It is named in honor of Dr. Klein, who brought a rational and pragmatic approach ...

Faced with a drought of data concerning Appalachian drinking water quality and resulting health outcomes, researchers dug deeply to find what trickles they could. Alasdair Cohen, assistant professor of environmental epidemiology in public health, has studied drinking water and health challenges in rural areas internationally and in California. Since arriving at Virginia Tech in 2019, he has been studying similar issues in rural Appalachia. “My first few years at Virginia Tech, I reached out to academics, nonprofits, and state and local government agencies to try and better understand what was known about water quality in the region,” ...

Guilt. It’s a horrible feeling that causes us to question our worth as human beings. But while it’s something that induces sleepless nights and stress-related physical symptoms in individuals, for society at large, the tendency toward guilt might have some benefits. “People who are prone to feeling guilt in their everyday lives are less likely to take bribes,” said UC Santa Barbara psychology professor Hongbo Yu, who specializes in how social emotions give rise to behaviors. He is a senior author of a paper that appears in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. In a study he conducted ...

University of North Florida faculty member Dr. Barry Albright is part of a research team led by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) who have unlocked new evolutionary information following the discovery of a 94-million-year-old mosasaur in the gray shale badlands of the National Park Service Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in southern Utah. Mosasaurs are fully marine-adapted reptiles that swam the seas while dinosaurs ruled the land. The ground-breaking research was just published in Cretaceous Research. The journey began nearly 11 years ago as Scott Richardson, a trained volunteer working under Dr. Albright, searched for fossilized remains of creatures ...

Efforts to improve sage grouse habitat through conventional management practices may be ineffective -- and even counterproductive -- according to research by University of Wyoming and other scientists. Sagebrush reduction strategies, including mowing and herbicide application, are often employed to enhance habitat for the greater sage grouse and other sagebrush-dependent species. The theory is that clearing large sagebrush shrubs improves food sources in sage grouse nesting and brood-rearing habitats by allowing ...

Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine have led a study to examine a potential new treatment option for patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)-related fibrosis.  The results, published in the June 24, 2023, online edition of The New England Journal of Medicine, found that a drug that mimics a hormone in the body improved both liver fibrosis, or scarring of the liver, and liver inflammation in patients with NASH.  “Identifying an effective drug for NASH is extremely promising for patients as currently there are no FDA-approved therapies for this condition,” said Rohit Loomba, MD, the ...

BELLINGHAM, Washington, USA — The Journal of Applied Remote Sensing (JARS) has honored four of its best papers published in 2022. The awards recognize the journal’s best student paper, as well as papers in interdisciplinary applications, theoretical innovation, and photo-optical instrumentation and design. JARS is published online in the SPIE Digital Library by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, and optimizes the communication of concepts, information, and progress among the remote-sensing ...

HOUSTON – (June 26, 2023) – By 2030, if the 30 by 30 initiative supported by more than 100 countries is successful, 30% of our land and ocean ecosystems will be designated protected areas meant to safeguard biodiversity and help limit the impacts of climate change. However, a study by Rice University ecologist Lydia Beaudrot and collaborators reports for the first time that tropical mammals living inside protected areas are not spared the effects of human activity even when it occurs outside of the protected boundaries. Based on the ...

University of Oklahoma assistant professor Xiaochen (Angela) Zhang, Ph.D., has received a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development Award, known as a CAREER award, from the National Science Foundation to study how relationships among non-profits, community groups and local government agencies can improve disaster resilience, resource allocation, and emergency management by enabling organizational interactions, rather than top-down responses. Zhang, who is an assistant professor of public relations for the Gaylord College ...

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (06/26/2023) — A new study shows that current trends in environmental degradation will lead to large economic losses in the coming decades, hitting the poorest countries hardest. But there is hope: investing in nature can turn those losses into gains. Researchers from the University of Minnesota and Purdue University published their findings in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The team developed a first-of-its-kind, global earth-economy model to capture interactions ...

William Paterson University PRESS RELEASE EMBARGOED UNTIL MONDAY, JUNE 26, 2023, 3:00 PM EST   WAYNE, NEW JERSEY — A new study shows that the gigantic Megalodon, or megatooth shark, was warm-blooded. This latest research on the Megalodon, which lived in the world’s oceans from 23 million to 3.6 million years ago and measured about 50 feet in length, appears in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study, conceived of and led by Michael Griffiths ...

The largest marine predator that ever lived was no cold-blooded killer. Well, a killer, yes. But a new analysis by environmental scientists from UCLA, UC Merced and William Paterson University sheds light on the warm-blooded animal’s ability to regulate its body temperature — and might help explain why it went extinct. After analyzing isotopes in the tooth enamel of the ancient shark, which went extinct about 3.6 million years ago, the scientists concluded the megalodon could maintain a body temperature that was about ...

University of Calgary researchers have discovered how Leishmania parasites hide within the body to cause Leishmaniasis. The tiny parasites are carried by infected sand flies. Considered a tropical disease, one to two million people in more than 90 countries are infected every year. Effects range from disfiguring skin ulcers to enlarged spleen and liver and even death. This chronic disease has been difficult to detect in the early stages. Scientists realized that the parasite was somehow manipulating immune cells but this process had not been well understood. “This is the first study that shows how the parasite stalls the process of regular ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University researchers estimate that gray whales feeding off the Oregon Coast consume up to 21 million microparticles per day, a finding informed in part by poop from the whales. Microparticle pollution includes microplastics and other human-sourced materials, including fibers from clothing. The finding, just published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, is important because these particles are increasing exponentially and predicted to continue doing so in the coming decades, according to researchers Leigh Torres and Susanne Brander. Microparticle pollution is a threat to the health of ...

Surgical and intensive care patients face a higher risk of death and longer hospital stays because they are susceptible to both hypotension and hemodynamic instability – or unstable blood flow. These potential complications require round-the-clock monitoring of several cardiac functions by nurses and physicians, but there’s currently no singular, convenient device on the market that can measure the most vital aspects of a patient’s cardiovascular health.  Ramakrishna Mukkamala, professor of bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, and Aman Mahajan, ...