Mass shooters pursuing fame often plan their attacks as “surprises," carefully crafting them in ways that set them apart from previous incidents, which makes them uniquely challenging to prevent. That is a key finding in a groundbreaking new study from NYU Tandon School of Engineering, about the subset of mass shooters in the U.S. for whom notoriety is a primary objective. The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Led by Maurizio Porfiri, NYU Tandon Institute Professor and Director of the Center for Urban Science and ...

NOTE TO EDITORS: PHOTO AVAILABLE AT https://news.uci.edu/2023/05/08/uc-irvine-scientists-develop-gene-silencing-dna-enzyme-that-can-target-a-single-molecule/ Irvine, Calif., May 8, 2023 — Researchers from the University of California, Irvine have developed a DNA enzyme – or DNAzyme – that can distinguish between two RNA strands inside a cell and cut the disease-associated strand while leaving the healthy strand intact. This breakthrough “gene silencing” technology could revolutionize the development of DNAzymes for treating cancer, infectious diseases and neurological disorders. DNAzymes ...

Computer models are increasingly used to make decisions that affect nearly every aspect of modern life. This may include how to plan for the sustainable management of environmental resources to responding to pandemics. And while these models are often based on scientific data and research, they also incorporate subjective values, political interests, and human bias. With a prestigious national grant, a Virginia Tech researcher will dive into the ways that modeling processes can become more transparent while also incorporating diverse sources of information. Theodore Lim, an assistant professor ...

Wetlands, coastal areas and offshore waters near Alabama, Louisiana and Texas have more inactive oil and gas wells than producing ones, and the cost to permanently plug and abandon them could be $30 billion, University of California, Davis, researchers suggest. A paper published today in the journal Nature Energy examines the cost to plug 14,000 wells that are inactive, have not produced for five years and are unlikely to be reactivated in the Gulf of Mexico region, which is the epicenter of U.S. offshore oil and gas operations. The wells could pose future environmental and financial risks ...

PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA [May 8, 2023] — New research in the May 2023 issue of JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network from Moffitt Cancer Center finds that telemedicine consistently outperformed in-person visits for both access to care and provider response, according to a long-term study on patient experience. Researchers analyzed survey responses from 39,268 patients across more than 50,000 visits. Telemedicine experiences were compared to in-person visits during and after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, starting April 1, 2020, and running ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Astronomers have revealed new evidence about the properties of the giant bubbles of high-energy gas that extend far above and below the Milky Way galaxy’s center.  In a study recently published in Nature Astronomy, a team led by scientists at The Ohio State University was able to show that the shells of these structures – dubbed “eRosita bubbles” after being found by the eRosita X-ray telescope – are more complex than previously thought.  Although they bear a striking similarity in shape to Fermi bubbles, eRosita bubbles are larger and more energetic than their counterparts. Known together as the “galactic ...

Contact: Kelly Craine, Baylor University Media and Public Relations, 254-297-9065 Follow us on Twitter: @BaylorUMedia WACO, Texas (May 3, 2023) – Instagram and TikTok are two of the fastest-growing social media outlets in the U.S., offering entertainment and connection to a world-wide community with the ease of a finger swipe. Despite their growing popularity, little research has focused on the association between the specific use of Instagram and TikTok and a person’s psychological well-being. Noted Baylor University smartphone researchers Meredith E. David, Ph.D., ...

CHICAGO, May 8, 2023 – The coqui frog is one of Puerto Rico’s most iconic animals. It gets its name from its distinctive two-note call, “co-qui,” which can be heard throughout the island every night. The males of the species produce these calls to mark their territory and ward away rivals, but scientists can also use them to study the changing climate. Peter Narins of the University of California, Los Angeles will describe changes in the calls of the coqui frog over a 23-year period in his talk, “Climate change drives frog call change in Puerto Rico: Predictions and implications.” The presentation will take place Monday, ...

Photos Birds across the Americas are getting smaller and longer-winged as the world warms, and the smallest-bodied species are changing the fastest.   That's the main finding of a new University of Michigan-led study scheduled for online publication May 8 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.   The study combines data from two previously published papers that measured body-size and wing-length changes in a total of more than 86,000 bird specimens over four decades in North and ...

FORT LAUDERDALE/DAVIE, Fla. – “Know thy self; know thy enemy” - Sun Tzu That quote is from centuries ago, but it is applicable in so many ways. One example – new research from Nova Southeastern University (NSU) is understanding human infections and unlocking how bacteria “work together” making these infections much more difficult to treat. But it is understanding this symbiotic relationship – knowing thy enemy – that can lead to better ways to treat various ailments. This new study was recently published by the scientific journal eLife, and can be found ONLINE. “There are good bacteria and not so good ...

A new research study published in JMIR Diabetes evaluated the real-world effectiveness of the Fitterfly Diabetes CGM digital therapeutic program for the management of glycemic control and weight in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus. The study led by Shilpa Joshi, Arbinder Singal, and colleagues found significant improvements in both blood glucose levels and weight management in participants enrolled in the 90-day program. The Fitterfly Diabetes CGM program, delivered through the Fitterfly mobile app coupled with continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) technology, provides users with tailored recommendations on nutrition based on personalized ...

Animal studies indicate that a new COVID-19 vaccine developed at Rutgers may provide more durable protection against SARS-CoV-2 and its emerging variants than existing vaccines. “We need a better vaccine, one that provides years of robust protection with fewer booster shots against a variety of SARS-CoV-2 strains. Our data suggest this vaccine candidate might be able to do that,” said Stephen Anderson, associate professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry in SAS, resident member of the Rutgers Center for Advanced ...

For millions of people with seasonal allergies, springtime means runny noses, excessive sneezes and itchy eyes. And, as with many things, climate change appears to be making allergy season even worse. Researchers reporting in ACS Earth and Space Chemistry have shown that common allergen-producing plants ryegrass and ragweed emit more smaller, “subpollen particles” (SPPs) than once thought, yet climate would likely be most affected by their intact pollen grains, which can boost cloud formation. In addition to annoying sinuses, pollen naturally functions as a ...

Discarded or drifting in the ocean, plastic debris can accumulate on the water’s surface, forming floating islands of garbage. Although it’s harder to spot, researchers suspect a significant amount also sinks. In a new study in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology, one team used computer modeling to study how far bits of lightweight plastic travel when falling into the Mediterranean Sea. Their results suggest these particles can drift farther underwater than previously thought. From ...

A team of Florida State University researchers has further developed a new generation of organic-inorganic hybrid materials that can improve image quality in X-ray machines, CT scans and other radiation detection and imaging technologies. Professor Biwu Ma from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and his colleagues have developed a new class of materials that can act as highly efficient scintillators, which emit light after being exposed to other forms of high energy radiations, such as X-rays. The team’s most recent study, published in Advanced Materials, is an improvement upon their previous research to develop better scintillators. The new design concept produces ...

Astronomers used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to image the warm dust around a nearby young star, Fomalhaut, in order to study the first asteroid belt ever seen outside of our solar system in infrared light. But to their surprise, the dusty structures are much more complex than the asteroid and Kuiper dust belts of our solar system. Overall, there are three nested belts extending out to 14 billion miles (23 billion kilometers) from the star; that’s 150 times the distance of Earth from the Sun. The scale of the outermost belt is roughly twice the scale of our ...

Irvine, CA – May xx, 2023 – In a University of California, Irvine-led study, researchers have discovered small-molecule drugs with potential clinical utility in the treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy (DR), and retinitis pigmentosa (RP). The study, titled, “Stress resilience-enhancing drugs preserve tissue structure and function in degenerating retina via phosphodiesterase inhibition,” was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “In this study, we introduce a new class of therapeutics called ‘Stress ...

ST. LOUIS, MO - May 8, 2023 – Graduate student Amie Fornah Sankoh recently stood in front of 150 colleagues family and friends at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center to defend her thesis, Investigating the Effects of Salicylic acid on Intercellular Trafficking via Plasmodesmata in Nicotiana benthamiana. Upon her successful defense, Dr. Amie Sankoh became the first Deaf, Black woman to receive a PhD in any STEM discipline.  Completing a PhD is a challenging undertaking for anyone; to do so without easy access to the kinds of verbal communication that hearing people ...

CHICAGO, May 8, 2023 – Macrophages, a type of white blood cell, defend the body by engulfing and digesting foreign particles, such as bacteria, viruses, and dead cells. The immune cells also tend to accumulate in solid tumors, so tracking them could enable new ways to detect cancer and the earliest stages of metastasis. As part of the 184th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Ashley Alva of the Georgia Institute of Technology will describe how attaching microbubbles to macrophages can create high-resolution and sensitive tracking images useful for disease diagnosis. Her presentation, “Tracking macrophages ...

CHICAGO, May 8, 2023 – Imagine a cocktail party full of 3D-printed, humanoid robots listening and talking to each other. That seemingly sci-fi scene is the goal of the Augmented Listening Laboratory at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Realistic talking (and listening) heads are crucial for investigating how humans receive sound and developing audio technology. The team will describe the talking human head simulators in their presentation, “3D-printed acoustic head simulators that talk and move,” on Monday, May 8, at 12:15 p.m. Eastern U.S. in the Northwestern/Ohio State room of the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile Hotel. The talk comes as part of ...

The World Mitochondria Society is organizing its 14th world conference, Targeting Mitochondria 2023, on October 11-13 at the Steigenberger Hotel Am Kanzleramt, Berlin. Targeting Mitochondria 2023 will address the latest advances and perspectives in mitochondrial research and provide an outlook on future mitochondrial therapies. Volkmar Weissig, president of the World Mitochondria Society, and Marvin Edeas, president of the scientific committee, said, "This year  we will have specific sessions on innovations such as mitochondria in space, exosome-based mitochondrial ...

A limited menu of prey may weave a tangled food web by emboldening wolf spiders of multiple species to dine on each other and even cannibalize their own, says a study from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Ecologists have long known that predators with otherwise-similar diets can coexist by effectively divvying up the food sources of a community to ease competition and, ideally, leave enough prey for everyone. But analyses of wolf spider species in Nebraska suggest that when the diversity of their mutual prey is lacking, the eight-legged ...

Researchers at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at UCLA and the National Institutes of Health have developed a zebrafish model that provides new insight into how the brain acquires essential omega-3 fatty acids, including docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and linolenic acid (ALA). Their findings, published in Nature Communications, have the potential to improve understanding of lipid transport across the blood-brain barrier and of disruptions in this process that can lead to birth defects or neurological conditions. The model may also enable researchers to design drug molecules that are capable of directly ...

When you need a bit of motivation, it often has to come from within. New research suggests cancer-fighting immune cells have found a way to do just that. Scientists at University of California San Diego have discovered a property of T cells that could inspire new anti-tumor therapeutics. Through a previously undescribed form of cell auto-signaling, T cells were shown to activate themselves in peripheral tissues, fueling their ability to attack tumors. The study, published May 8, 2023 in Immunity, was led by study first author and postdoctoral fellow Yunlong Zhao, PhD, and co-senior authors Enfu Hui, PhD, professor in the School of Biological Sciences at UC ...

Woods Hole, Mass. (Monday, May 8, 2023) - A new study provides the first observational evidence of the stabilization of the anti-cyclonic Beaufort Gyre, which is the dominant circulation of the Canada Basin and the largest freshwater reservoir in the Arctic Ocean. The study uses a newly extended record of “dynamic ocean topography” satellite data from 2011-2019 provided by two of the co-authors, along with an extensive hydrographic dataset from 2003-2019, to quantify the changing sea surface height ...