Kyoto, Japan -- Purple is a color that has historically been associated with nobility around the world. Japan is no exception. However, its distinct murasaki hue is threatened as the native gromwell plant -- synonymous with murasaki -- has become an endangered species. Disease and cross-breeding with non-native species are partly to blame for murasaki's growing demise. Now, a research group including Kyoto University, is leading a movement to raise awareness of gromwell's importance in preserving ...

A new study of more than 50,000 US adolescents across the country indicates that vaping nicotine is strongly linked with an increased likelihood of high levels use of binge drinking and cannabis usage.    The findings, published today in the peer-reviewed journal Substance Use and Misuse, will add to growing public health concerns about the increased popularity of electronic cigarette (or ‘vaping’) use among young people.    “While the overall health risks of vaping are lower than smoking, electronic cigarettes are still harmful to adolescents and warrant ongoing ...

Researchers at UCLA Health and Harvard have identified 10 pesticides that significantly damaged neurons implicated in the development of Parkinson’s disease, providing new clues about environmental toxins’ role in the disease. While environmental factors such as pesticide exposure have long been linked to Parkinson’s, it has been harder to pinpoint which pesticides may raise risk for the neurodegenerative disorder. Just in California, the nation’s largest agricultural producer and exporter, there are nearly 14,000 pesticide products with over 1,000 active ingredients registered for use. Through a novel pairing ...

A new agreement between Utah State University and Hill Air Force Base will create enhanced learning opportunities for students and spur innovative joint research efforts. The Education Partnership Agreement was signed on May 11 by USU President Noelle Cockett and Wayne Ayer, a director of the Air Force Sustainment Center’s Engineering and Technical Management Directorate in Ogden. “There are so many opportunities and technologies that exist within the Air Force that students and faculty can be a part of,” Ayer said. “By ...

ST. LOUIS — The Institute for Healing Justice and Equity (IHJE) at Saint Louis University has launched "Critical Futures," a new podcast about imagining alternative futures. The first episode "Reimagining Community Partnerships" explores anti-racist health policies and structural racism in the health care system and was produced with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), as part of the work of the Anti-Racism Consortium. “How do we dismantle these systems? What are we building in its wake to move forward so that we can stop having these conversations? Will that happen in our lifetime? ...

New experiments using one-dimensional gases of ultra-cold atoms reveal a universality in how quantum systems composed of many particles change over time following a large influx of energy that throws the system out of equilibrium. A team of physicists at Penn State showed that these gases immediately respond, “evolving” with features that are common to all “many-body” quantum systems thrown out of equilibrium in this way. A paper describing the experiments appears May 17, 2023 in the journal Nature. “Many major ...

URBANA, Ill. – Food allergies pose a significant health risk, resulting in numerous hospitalizations every year, as even trace amounts of allergens can trigger severe reactions. Cross-contamination of food products can happen easily in the production process, so it’s important to have reliable methods of testing for allergens. A new study conducted at the University of Illinois explores the application of near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy to detect three types of allergens in quinoa flour. The researchers say the method ...

“Will you be paying with cash or card?”  It’s a question that’s been asked of consumers for decades. And despite the increasing popularity of digital payment methods, cash and card remain the most popular choices worldwide. In 2021, 65 percent of all point-of-sale transactions globally were made using cash or card, according to Fidelity National Information Services.   Past research shows that 90 percent of households use multiple payment methods, but new research from the University of Notre Dame takes a first look into how consumers choose between them. The study finds that ...

BUFFALO, NY-May 17, 2023 – Impact Journals will be participating as an exhibitor at the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) 45th Annual Meeting, which convenes May 31–June 2, 2023, at the Oregon Convention Center & Hyatt Regency Portland in Portland, Oregon, USA. This year, the meeting theme is: “Transformation, Trust, and Transparency.” “The pace of change in our industry continues unabated, with seismic shifts in areas such as the dissemination of research, business models, and the nature of the workplace. And yet, while pressure for change has become the new normal, ...

MINNEAPOLIS – Getting regular exercise such as cycling, walking, gardening, cleaning and participating in sports may decrease the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, according to new research published in the May 17, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study found female participants who exercised the most had a 25% lower rate of Parkinson’s disease when compared to those who exercised the least. The study does not prove that exercise lowers the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. ...

MINNEAPOLIS – The number of deaths worldwide from ischemic stroke increased from 2 million in 1990 to more than 3 million in 2019, and is expected to increase to nearly 5 million by 2030, according to a study published in the May 17, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study focused on ischemic stroke, which is caused by a blockage of blood flow to the brain and is the most common type of stroke. “This increase in the global death toll of ischemic stroke along with a predicted further increase in the future is concerning, ...

Many owners of electric vehicles worry about how effective their battery will be in very cold weather. Now a new battery chemistry may have solved that problem. In current lithium-ion batteries, the main problem lies in the liquid electrolyte. This key battery component transfers charge-carrying particles called ions between the battery’s two electrodes, causing the battery to charge and discharge. But the liquid begins to freeze at sub-zero temperatures. This condition severely limits the effectiveness of charging electric ...

A new discovery about the structure of melanin has brought scientists one step closer to developing a new, potentially ultra-protective sunscreen derived from a biological substance found in nearly all organisms. Researchers from McGill’s Department of Chemistry, in collaboration with The Ohio State University and the University of Girona, have announced a major advance in understanding the fundamental structure of melanin and one of its components that turns light into heat, protecting the body from sun damage. Melanin, the pigment that gives humans their skin, eye, and hair colour, is the body’s first and best natural defense against the sun’s ...

Siblings can "pave the way" when they have a similar "Big Five" personality - with introverted siblings being more likely to leave home once their similarly introverted brother or sister has done so ### Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0284808 Article Title: Do birds of a feather leave the nest together? The role of sibling personality similarity in the transition to adulthood Author Countries: Belgium. Funding: This research has been made possible through the grant Nr. G017519N ...

Households whose "heads" score highly for openness and conscientiousness are more likely to make higher charitable donations, according to Chinese study incorporating "Big Five" personality traits ### Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0284798 Article Title: A study on the influence of personality characteristics on household charitable donation behavior in China Author Countries: China Funding: Funding was provided by Shenzhen Key Research ...

In areas of Colombia once controlled by guerillas, conflicts over land continue and deforestation has risen considerably. But it’s in these same areas that researchers have found that farmers implementing sustainable land use systems, like agroforestry driven by cocoa (one of the key ingredients of chocolate), has contributed to reducing conflicts.  Deforestation and Conflict In 2016, the government of Colombia signed a peace treaty with the guerilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC, for its initials in Spanish) and in the following years, forested areas formerly controlled by the FARC saw an influx of other illegal actors, contributing ...

Australian nanomedicine researchers have come up with a new approach to solving a decades-old clinical problem: getting treatment drugs to act selectively on cancer cells in the body. Published this week in the high-impact journal Science Translational Medicine, the research paves the way to safer and more effective treatment options for children with aggressive blood cancers, and potentially other types of cancer as well. Chemotherapy is the mainstay of treatment for leukaemia, the most common blood cancer in children. However, while chemotherapy can be very effective for certain types of leukaemia, ...

Scales, spines, feathers and hair are examples of vertebrate skin appendages, which constitute a remarkably diverse group of micro-organs. Despite their natural multitude of forms, these appendages share early developmental processes at the embryonic stage. Two researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have discovered how to permanently transform the scales that normally cover the feet of chickens into feathers, by specificially modifying the expression of certain genes. These results, published in the journal Science Advances, open new perspectives for studying mechanisms that have enabled radical evolutionary ...

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have found further evidence for how the Epstein-Barr virus can trigger multiple sclerosis or drive disease progression. A study published in Science Advances shows that some individuals have antibodies against the virus that mistakenly attack a protein in the brain and spinal cord. The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infects most people early in life and then remains in the body, usually without causing symptoms. The link between EBV and the neurological disease multiple sclerosis (MS) was discovered many years ago and has puzzled ...

Organisms rely on a biological clock known as the ‘circadian’ clock to regulate their activity according to the time of day. A central clock, constituted by a group of brain cells — the suprachiasmatic nuclei, or SCN — synchronises the circadian clocks present in all body’s organs, called ‘peripheral’ clocks. Until now, synchronisation of the circadian cycle in mammals was thought to be a one-way mechanism in which the suprachiasmatic nuclei alone synchronized the peripheral ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Decades of research show that experiencing traumatic things as a child -- such as having an alcoholic parent or growing up in a tumultuous home -- puts you at risk for poorer health and survival later in life. But mounting evidence suggests that forging strong social relationships can help mitigate these effects. And not just for people, but for our primate cousins, too. Drawing on 36 years of data, a new study of nearly 200 baboons in southern Kenya finds that adversity early in life can take years off their lifespan, but strong social bonds with other baboons in adulthood can help ...

Heart transplant recipients receiving organs from active COVID-19 positive donors may have an increased risk of death at six months and one year when compared to those receiving organs from recently recovered COVID-19 patients and COVID-19 negative patients, according to a study published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. “These early trends should be concerning enough such that heart transplantation centers need to thoroughly evaluate and continue to weigh the risks/benefits of using hearts from active COVID-19 donors,” said Shivank Madan, MD, MHA, lead author of the study and a cardiologist ...

University of Queensland-led research has revealed liver cells influence the body’s internal circadian clock, which was previously believed to be solely controlled by the brain. Associate Professor Frédéric Gachon from UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience and Dr Serge Luquet from Université Paris Cité/CNRS in France and their collaborators have demonstrated that mice with transplanted human liver cells had modified circadian rhythms. Dr Gachon said the ...

Researchers in the Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI) at the University of Colorado School of Medicine have reached a major milestone in developing standards and tools for creating phenopackets that may foster more innovation and advancement in the medical field by allowing health professionals to more easily collect and share data. A newly-released paper highlights the latest suite of coordinated standards and tools used to collect data related to rare diseases. The phenopackets, ...

The ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group (ECOG-ACRIN) announces the following cancer researchers as the recipients of the organization’s annual scientific leadership and mentorship awards. Through its Mentoring Program, ECOG-ACRIN formally recognizes outstanding scientific leadership through events and awards that identify, encourage, and recognize investigators in the early years of their careers. The program is expanding in 2023 with the addition of the Remarkable Mentor to Women in Oncology Award. Young Investigator of the Year Patrick M. Forde, MBBCh, is the 2023 recipient of the Young Investigator Award, a professional honor to recognize ...