RICHLAND, Wash.— From densely built urban cores to sprawling suburbia, cities are complex. This complexity can lead to temperature hot spots within cities, with some neighborhoods (and their residents) facing more heat than others. Understanding this environmental disparity forms the spirit of new research led by scientists at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. In a new paper examining all major cities in the U.S., the authors find that the average Black resident is exposed to air that is warmer by 0.28 degrees ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Warmer temperatures are known to make more turtle eggs become female hatchlings, but new research out of Duke University shows that those females also have a higher capacity for egg production, even before their sex is set. This finding may explain why many animals besides turtles have temperature-dependent sex determination and why the system persists, despite seeming like a risky strategy. It may also provide a troubling glimpse of what could lie ahead in a warming world. What the ...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Stress during adolescence can cause postpartum behavioral changes in women and other mammals, including depression and changes in social behavior after the birth of a child. However, the neural circuit mechanisms by which adolescent stress leads to later changes in postpartum social behavior are unclear. In a Nature Communications study, University of Alabama at Birmingham researcher Minae Niwa, Ph.D., used a mouse model and cutting-edge neurobiological techniques to show how psychological stress during adolescence alters neuronal functions in the brain, resulting in altered postpartum social behavior. This ...

Some firearm owners may not want researchers to know they own firearms, according to a study by the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers. In a study published in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, researchers found that based on their answers to a variety of other questions, a group of individuals appeared as though they might be falsely denying firearm ownership when directly asked by researchers. While some of these individuals resemble what previous research indicated to be a typical American firearm owner (e.g., white, male), others looked quite different (racial or ethnic minority, female, ...

NEW YORK, NY--The cause of a common kidney disease likely lies outside the kidney, according to a new study led by Columbia University researchers. The study, which uncovered 16 new locations in the genome linked to immunoglobulin A (IgA) nephropathy, confirms an earlier hypothesis that the immune system has an important role in driving the disease and points toward new strategies for detecting and treating it. No targeted treatments have been approved to treat IgA nephropathy, largely because the underlying cause of the disease has not been well understood. Identifying genes linked ...

Scientists at Stanford Medicine conducted a study describing a new category of depression — labeled the cognitive biotype — which accounts for 27% of depressed patients and is not effectively treated by commonly prescribed antidepressants. Cognitive tasks showed that these patients have difficulty with the ability to plan ahead, display self-control, sustain focus despite distractions and suppress inappropriate behavior; imaging showed decreased activity in two brain regions responsible for those tasks. Because depression has traditionally been defined as a mood disorder, ...

Stanford University’s Innovative Medicines Accelerator (IMA) and Intonation Research Laboratories (Intonation) have formed a collaboration to develop treatments that target cancerous neuroendocrine tumors, or tumors that form from hormone-releasing cells.  The goal of the collaboration is to reduce the time and resources it takes to translate a biomedical breakthrough into a clinically and commercially viable medicine.  “I’m excited about this collaboration with Intonation Research Laboratories, which has the potential to speed ...

The Bachman’s warbler, a songbird that was last seen in North America nearly 40 years ago, was a distinct species and not a hybrid of its two living sister species, according a new study in which the full genomes of seven museum specimens of the bird were sequenced. Genome comparisons of Bachman’s warbler with the golden-winged and blue-winged warblers also helped researchers identify a new candidate gene involved in feather pigmentation in the group. A paper describing the study, led by Penn State researchers, highlights the crucial role that museum collections can play in science and appears ...

WACO, Texas (June 23, 2023) – Women represent the fastest-growing population in U.S. institutional corrections facilities. In the past four decades, the number of women incarcerated has increased by more than 475%, rising from 26,326 in 1980 to 152,854 in 2020.Because the majority of imprisoned women are mothers, a conservative estimate indicates that at least one million American children have experienced maternal incarceration, and a substantial portion of them are adolescents. Evidence suggests that maternal incarceration is a risk factor for adolescents’ ...

A layperson might think of “frail” as simply a synonym for “weak” or “fragile.” But in the medical field, frailty is a specific term, meaning – due to factors including inflammation and hormone shifts – a patient has a lack of physiological reserve, or a reduced ability to tolerate stress. “That stress can be anything from the simple event of falling to getting COVID or another infectious disease,” said Nima Toosizadeh, assistant professor of biomedical engineering and medicine. “Or, it can be a treatment that might be invasive for patients. Knowing who can tolerate the stress is critical.” It ...

“Approaches targeted to prevent this post-therapy cancer cell repopulation should be uncovered to prevent tumor relapse and thus increase overall survival from this devastating disease.” BUFFALO, NY- June 23, 2023 – A new research perspective was published in Oncoscience (Volume 10) on June 1, 2023, entitled, “Cancer cell repopulation after therapy: which is the mechanism?” The past two decades have brought great progress in the treatment of cancer as patients with the disease live ...

Mario Romero-Ortega was selected through a nationwide search to head the University of Arizona Department of Biomedical Engineering, beginning with the fall 2023 semester. “I was drawn by the culture of collaboration, the quality of the students and faculty, and by the unified vision from University of Arizona leadership to impact biomedical engineering and health, from local to global,” he said. Romero-Ortega will join the College of Engineering from the University of Houston, where he serves in the College of Engineering as a Cullen ...

Kyle Emich, a professor of management at the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, along with Rachel Amey and Chad Forbes, then with UD’s Psychology and Brain Sciences Department, were searching for clues about why women’s knowledge often gets ignored in the workplace and how to improve the situation.  Drawing on both a problem-solving group exercise and measurements of brain activity, their findings, now published by the journal Small Group Research, illustrate ways stereotypes and attitudes can ...

The El Gigante rockshelter in western Honduras is among only a handful of archaeological sites in the Americas that contain well-preserved botanical remains spanning the last 11,000 years. Considered one of the most important archaeological sites discovered in Central America in the last 40 years, El Gigante was recently nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. “No other location shows, as clearly as El Gigante,” state UNESCO materials about the site’s universal value, “the dynamic character of hunter-gatherer societies, and their adaptive way of life in the Central ...

Water is an essential and indispensable component of humanity’s everyday existence. As the global population grows and the climate warms, so does the water demand.  Over the past two decades, global reservoirs have become increasingly empty despite an overall increase in total storage capacity due to the construction of new reservoirs. Led by Dr. Huilin Gao, associate professor in the Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Texas A&M University, researchers used a new approach with satellite data to estimate the storage variations ...

B cells are thought to play a critical role in innate and adaptive immunity, but their exact role in anti-tumor immunity remains unknown. Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital with expertise in immunology collaborated with experts in dermatology from Massachusetts General Hospital to further understand the role of B cells and identify a subset of cells that may play a critical role. In collaboration with the Broad Institute they used a technique called single-cell profiling, which allows them to look at all the genes ...

NEW YORK & SAN FRANCISCO – June 23, 2023 – Building on the resounding success of last year’s standing-room-only debut, the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF) and Fogarty Innovation are proud to present an even more dynamic and comprehensive TCT MedTech Innovation Forum in 2023. The highly anticipated program will feature additional learning tracks, expanded networking opportunities, increased attendee capacity, and the TCT Shark Tank Innovation Competition. The day-long interactive summit will take place on the first day of TCT 2023 (Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics), ...

Key takeaways: A new study suggests global future economic growth will be slower than predicted, with developing nations taking longer to close the wealth gap and approach the income of wealthier nations Governments need to start planning for slower-growth scenarios, which may involve wealthier nations providing lower-income countries with financing for climate change adaptations  National debt and debt-ceiling talks may become more contentious in the coming decades  The global economy will grow slower in the 21st century ...

A nascent literature is emerging that analyzes the case of Colin Kaepernick who was “locked out” of the National Football League (NFL) beginning in 2017 because he chose to protest police brutality, systemic racism, and white supremacy. Using status expectations states theory and prototypicality theory, this research re-conceptualizes Kaepernick’s lock-out as an infringement on his right to work. First, researchers utilize a modified case-study approach comparing his experiences to those of six other Black male athletes who were “locked out.” Second, researchers utilize data and “matched cases” to demonstrate empirically ...

LA JOLLA (June 23, 2023)—Worldwide, more than a million deaths occur each year due to diarrheal diseases that lead to dehydration and malnutrition. Yet, no vaccine exists to fight or prevent these diseases, which are caused by bacteria like certain strains of E. coli. Instead, people with bacterial infections must rely on the body taking one of two defense strategies: kill the intruders or impair the intruders but keep them around. If the body chooses to impair the bacteria, then the disease can occur without the diarrhea, but the infection can still be transmitted—a process called asymptomatic carriage. Now, Salk scientists have found that ...

The race to make the widespread use of intermittent renewable energy a reality has taken a step forward with new research by experts from the University of Adelaide who are improving the efficiency of iridium-based catalysts. “Currently it is difficult for commercial iridium oxide catalysts to achieve high activity and stability at the same time in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE),” said the University of Adelaide’s Associate Professor Yao Zheng, ARC Future Fellow, School of Chemical Engineering. “We have found that a lattice-water-assisted mechanism – a ...

A team of researchers at Baylor College of Medicine is gaining ground in their search for solutions to the global problem of bacterial antibiotic resistance, which was responsible for nearly 1.3 million deaths in 2019. The team reports in the journal Science Advances a drug that, in laboratory cultures and animal models, significantly reduces the ability of bacteria to develop antibiotic resistance, which might prolong antibiotic effectiveness. The drug, called dequalinium chloride (DEQ), is a proof-of-concept for evolution-slowing drugs. “Most people with bacterial infections ...

Between the first and second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, excess deaths decreased in large metropolitan counties and increased in rural counties in the United States, according to a new study led by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) and The University of Pennsylvania (UPenn). The novel study presents the first-ever monthly estimates of excess mortality rates for every US county during the first two years of the pandemic. Excess mortality, which compares observed deaths to the number of deaths that would be expected ...

Between the first and second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, excess deaths decreased in large metropolitan counties and increased in rural counties in the United States, according to a new study led by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) and The University of Pennsylvania (UPenn).   The novel study presents the first-ever monthly estimates of excess mortality rates for every US county during the first two years of the pandemic. Excess mortality, which compares observed deaths to the number of deaths that would be expected under normal conditions in a given ...

A Florida State University faculty member’s research is helping to uncover more about the conditions necessary for the beginnings of life on Earth. FSU Assistant Professor Richard Bono was part of a multi-institution team that found evidence that the planet’s magnetic field was stable from 3.9 to 3.4 billion years ago, a time when scientists think life may have first originated. Their research was published in Nature. Bono explained more about what the team found and its implications for the origins of plate tectonics and life on Earth. What did the research team find? Our research showed ...