International aid for pre-primary education has fallen further behind an agreed 10% spending target since the COVID-19 outbreak, according to new research.   The report, compiled by academics at the University of Cambridge for the global children’s charity, Theirworld, highlights “continued, chronic” underfunding of pre-primary education in many of the world’s poorest nations, after years of slow progress and pandemic-related cuts.   Early childhood education is widely understood to be essential to children’s successful cognitive and social development and to breaking cycles of poverty in poorer countries. ...

Researchers have developed a chicken egg that may be safe for people with egg white allergies. Chicken egg allergies are one of the most common allergies in children. Though most children outgrow this allergy by age 16, some will still have an egg allergy into adulthood. Egg white allergies can cause a variety of symptoms, including vomiting, stomach cramps, breathing problems, hives, and swelling and some people with egg white allergies are unable to receive certain flu vaccines. Using genome editing technology, researchers have produced an egg without ...

By combining the scientific powerhouses of genetics and geology, University of Otago researchers have identified a new area of coastal uplift, which had been hiding in plain sight.   The previously unknown region of earthquake uplift, in Rarangi, Marlborough, was discovered using a combination of new data from laser mapping and kelp genetics.     Co-author Professor Jon Waters, of the Department of Zoology, says the study gives new insights into the changes in Aotearoa’s landscapes and the recent history of earthquake impacts.   “In a geologically well studied country like New Zealand, there ...

Political and legislative action is urgently needed to respond to threats posed by the link between environmental factors and widespread infertility, says the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) today (Wednesday). This is one of the (8) recommendations outlined in a list of statements published by ESHRE for the first time. The aim is to draw attention to the growing threat from climate change, pollutants, hormone-disrupting chemicals, toxic substances, and other related risks. The ...

A new framework developed by University of Waterloo researchers demonstrates the significant economic health savings and benefits from urban park investments. In the first case study of its kind in Canada, researchers looked at Peterborough’s new Quaker Foods City Square park, which cost taxpayers $6.4 million, and have estimated the economic value of physical and mental health benefits that could come from it at more than $4 million per year. The framework considers the health savings associated with improved mental health and better air quality, the ...

New liquid biopsy method offers potential for noninvasive Parkinson’s disease testing EVtrap technology identifies proteins from brain cells in urine samples WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A team led by researchers at Purdue University and Purdue spinoff company Tymora Analytical Operations has developed a technique that may reveal signs of Parkinson’s disease in urine samples. The technique gives researchers a chance to see if LRRK2 (leucine-rich repeat kinase 2) proteins, which are linked to Parkinson’s disease, and their downstream pathways are altered in samples from Parkinson’s patients. The method could eventually lead ...

WASHINGTON (May 16, 2023) - The George Washington University is co-leading a multi-institutional effort supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that will develop new artificial intelligence (AI) technologies designed to promote trust and mitigate risks, while simultaneously empowering and educating the public. The NSF Institute for Trustworthy AI in Law & Society (TRAILS) announced on May 4, 2023, unites specialists in AI and machine learning with systems engineers, social scientists, legal ...

Black adults – particularly Black women – with higher levels of education and experiences of discrimination and crime are more likely to own a firearm, according to a study by the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers. In a new study appearing in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, researchers found that Black adults who endorsed firearm ownership were more likely to grow up in homes with firearms, had previously shot a firearm and planned to acquire a firearm in the coming year. “The higher rates of firearm ownership among highly educated Black women were somewhat surprising to us,” said Michael Anestis, executive director ...

Mean age at diagnosis of heart failure was 32 years old First study to estimate risk of heart failure among young adult cancer survivors treated with this category of chemotherapy  Study raises awareness for patients, clinicians to monitor for heart failure symptoms, consider strategies for prevention CHICAGO --- Imagine surviving cancer only to learn the drug that saved your life has introduced a completely different health risk: heart failure. A new Northwestern Medicine study has found young adult cancer survivors (between 18 and 39 years old at diagnosis) were at higher risk (2.6 times) of heart failure when treated with anthracyclines, a specific category ...

Only four weeks of shift work-like patterns in female mice are enough to disrupt their biological clock and reduce fertility, according to research presented at the 25th European Congress of Endocrinology. The findings help scientists better understand how circadian disturbances impact female fertility, which could eventually lead to future prevention strategies for women working in non-standard work schedules. The circadian rhythm is generated by the body’s internal clocks which are synchronised to a 24-hour period, mostly by changes in light across days. These clocks regulate various biological functions and processes, including the sleep-wake cycle, ...

The board of governors of the SWOG Cancer Research Network has elected Primo N. Lara, Jr., MD, and Dawn L. Hershman, MD, MS, as group co-chairs-elect. The two will serve in that capacity until the term of the current group chair, Charles D. Blanke, MD, ends in spring 2025. They will then begin a six-year term as SWOG’s first group co-chairs. In a joint statement, Hershman and Lara said, “We both understand that the success of SWOG has been fundamentally anchored in collaborative interdisciplinary team science. We are convinced ...

Boulder, Colo., USA: The Geological Society of America (GSA) is pleased to announce the upcoming 2023 GSA Rocky Mountain Section Meeting to be held from 23–25 May in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA. This highly anticipated event will provide a dynamic platform for scientists, researchers, industry professionals, and students to exchange ideas, present research findings, and foster collaborations. The meeting will feature a wide range of engaging sessions, a plenary lecture on climate intervention, scientific field trips, informative short courses, and impactful mentoring programs ...

COMBINEDBrain’s Founder and Director, Dr. Terry Jo Bichell, understands the power of collaboration. In her years as a neuroscientist, advocate, and rare patient parent, she has witnessed the field of neurodevelopment transform from a broad focus on autism  or intellectual disability,  to an era based on rare genetic  disorders.  When new disorders are identified, Patient Advocacy Organizations spring up, led by passionate parents with the drive and determination to cure their children. Some of these organizations represent as many as 10,000 patients, some as few as 10.  No matter their size, each organization must follow a similar path to ...

Liquid biopsy is increasingly stepping up as a non-invasive approach in detecting and tracking circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in blood and providing crucial insights into the dynamics of cancer evolution and intra-tumor heterogeneity as drivers of cancer drug resistance.   One main limitation of liquid biopsy to-date is the low sensitivity of current approaches in tumor types that do not shed enough DNA into the bloodstream, including pancreatic cancer.   Co-led by VHIO’s Rodrigo A. Toledo, a study published in Genome Medicine (1) reports on the development of a novel ctDNA-based approach, Aneuploidy in Circulating Tumor DNA ...

Researchers at Rutgers University have found a major flaw in the way that algorithms designed to detect "fake news" evaluate the credibility of online news stories. Most of these algorithms rely on a credibility score for the "source" of the article, rather than assessing the credibility of each individual article, the researchers said. "It is not the case that all news articles published by sources labeled 'credible' (e.g., The New York Times) are accurate, nor is it the case that every article published by sources labeled 'noncredible' publications are 'fake news,'" ...

Spooked by volatile reports from the Silicon Valley Bank in early March, many customers panicked and withdrew their money, creating the largest bank failure since the 2007-2008 financial crisis. The problem — investors and customers lost confidence in the bank, proving the perception of a banks’ reliability can significantly impact its success. Investors tend to respond negatively to volatility in firms’ performance. To mitigate investors’ concerns, when some banks receive extremely high income, they occasionally delay reporting that amount until a later date when the income ...

“[...] we have developed a fully automated calling algorithm for determining B and T cell clonality from NGS [next-generation sequencing] data, with greater sensitivity than previously developed models.” BUFFALO, NY- May 16, 2023 – A new research paper was published in Oncotarget's Volume 14 on May 12, 2023, entitled, “Development and implementation of an automated and highly accurate reporting process for NGS-based clonality testing.” B and T cells undergo random recombination of the VH/DH/JH portions of the immunoglobulin loci (B cell) and T-cell receptors before becoming ...

“This study now links Msi 1 to PD-L1.” BUFFALO, NY- May 16, 2023 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 15, Issue 9, entitled, “Increased expression of musashi 1 on breast cancer cells has implication to understand dormancy and survival in bone marrow.” Breast cancer (BC) stem cells (CSCs) resist treatment and can exist as dormant cells in tissues such as the bone marrow (BM). Years before clinical diagnosis, BC cells (BCCs) could migrate from the primary site where the BM niche ...

Irvine, Calif., May 16, 2023 — The MGAT5 glycosylation enzyme plays a crucial role in brain development, according to a study by University of California, Irvine researchers, a discovery that may contribute to new therapeutic purposes for neural stem cells. Neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes are the final mature cells of the brain and spinal cord formed by neural stem cells. Each has distinct and key functions. Neurons transmit signals, astrocytes help modify those signals, and oligodendrocytes ...

Like the lymphatic system in the body, the glymphatic system in the brain clears metabolic waste and distributes nutrients and other important compounds. Impairments in this system may contribute to brain diseases, such as neurodegenerative diseases and stroke. A team of researchers in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis has found a noninvasive and nonpharmaceutical method to influence glymphatic transport using focused ultrasound, opening the opportunity to use the method to further study brain diseases and brain function. Results of the work are published in the Proceedings ...

The prize, now in its 10th year, is given annually to at least six early-career scientists based in the New York City area by The Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance. Prizes are awarded to scientists who are pursuing innovative cancer research and taking risks that might preclude them from traditional funding. Winners receive $250,000 a year for up to three years and access to networking opportunities and an annual retreat with past winners. For Dr. Simon, the prize will allow him to apply his knowledge as a neuroscientist to cancer research. “I'm not a traditional cancer biologist,” said Dr. ...

A team from the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center and School of Dentistry, led by Yu Leo Lei, D.D.S., Ph.D., have identified a mechanism in mice for how obesity affects some oral cancers’ ability to escape from the immune system. This study, published in Cell Reports, found that obesity helps to establish a type of tumor microenvironment that promotes tumor progression. How exactly this happens lies in the relationship between the saturated fatty acids, the STING-type-I interferon pathway, and NLRC3. “We tend to think about the increased risks for gastrointestinal tumors, breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, and ovarian cancer when it comes to obesity,” ...

If you are a third grader, your chances of growing up to be a computer scientist is likely to heavily depend on your gender — a situation Allison Master says is just plain wrong. How can Master be certain? Because third grade girls are telling her so. “Our new research addresses a big, longstanding issue in STEM education, that women are highly under-represented in fields like computer science. It’s actually one of the most challenging fields for women’s representation. Only about 20% of people who major in computer science are women,” said Master, assistant professor ...

Researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center and the School of Dentistry identified a new metric to articulate the relationship between nerve density and oral cancer. The study, published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, investigated normalized nerve density to translate previous mechanistic studies into a context that could be used in the clinic. “We are recognizing more and more that there's a very dynamic interaction between nerves and cancer cells in the tumor microenvironment,” said Nisha D’Silva, B.D.S., M.S.D, Ph.D., Donald Kerr Endowed Collegiate ...

SEATTLE – (May 16, 2023) – Patients with cancer whose immune systems are being supported or rebuilt by bone marrow transplantation should begin receiving vaccines for protection against SARS-CoV-2 three months post-transplant, according to a large, prospective, observational study led collaboratively by the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research, the Blood & Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. The research, involving 22 cancer centers and research institutions in the United States and focusing on mRNA-based vaccines, published in The Lancet journal ...