Led by researchers from NYU Grossman School of Medicine and University of Szeged in Hungary, a new study in mice and rats found that restoring certain signals in a brain region that processes smells countered depression. Publishing in the journal Neuron online May 9, the study results revolve around nerve cells (neurons), which “fire” – or emit electrical signals – to transmit information. Researchers in recent years discovered that effective communication between brain regions ...

Scientists have used mitochondrial DNA to trace a female lineage from northern coastal China to the Americas. By integrating contemporary and ancient mitochondrial DNA, the team found evidence of at least two migrations: one during the last ice age, and one during the subsequent melting period. Around the same time as the second migration, another branch of the same lineage migrated to Japan, which could explain Paleolithic archeological similarities between the Americas, China, and Japan. The study appears May 9 in the journal Cell Reports. “The Asian ...

About The Study: Between 1999 and 2020, deaths coded as being caused by falls among adults age 65 or older in the U.S. increased in number and rates for the overall population and for every population subgroup, although the magnitude of the increase varied. However, the relative ranking of the different groups has not changed over time.  Authors: Alexis R. Santos-Lozada, Ph.D., of Pennsylvania State University in University Park, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2023.3054) Editor’s ...

WASHINGTON, May 9, 2023 – Espresso coffee is brewed by first grinding roasted coffee beans into grains. Hot water then forces its way through a bed of coffee grains at high pressure, and the soluble content of the coffee grains dissolves into the water (extraction) to produce espresso. In 2020, researchers found that more finely ground coffee beans brew a weaker espresso. This counterintuitive experimental result makes sense if, for some reason, regions exist within the coffee bed where less or even no coffee is extracted. This uneven extraction becomes more pronounced when coffee is ground more finely. In Physics of Fluids, from AIP Publishing, ...

WASHINGTON, May 9, 2023 – The mountain pine beetle is one of the main causes of tree mortality in the pine forests of North America. For example, the insect has killed thousands of acres of pine forest in British Columbia and Alberta, and as a result, the areas are more vulnerable to wildfire. Increased tree mortality has turned Canada’s forests into a large net source of atmospheric carbon dioxide – emitted from the burned or decaying wood of dead trees – rather than a sink. In Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, researchers from the University of Alberta studied the flight performance of the mountain pine beetle from a fluid mechanics and an entomological perspective. ...

Study following Chicagoans over a 25-year period suggests over half of the city’s Black and Hispanic population, and a quarter of its White population, have seen a shooting by age 40. Researchers followed over two thousand people, with 50% of all the study’s participants witnessing a shooting. Average age when first witnessing a shooting was just 14 years old. Women only slightly less likely than men to witness shootings, despite men being far more likely to get shot. Such levels of violence exposure may cause chronic stress and knock-on health implications for populations in Chicago and elsewhere. A ...

About The Study: In this study, patients using medical cannabis reported improvements in health-related quality of life, which were mostly sustained over time. Adverse events were rarely serious but common, highlighting the need for caution with prescribing medical cannabis. Authors: Thomas R. Arkell, Ph.D., of the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi: ...

The SARS-Cov-2 pandemic illustrates how variable vaccines can be in their length of efficacy, with regular boosters needed to keep people protected. In comparison, the immunity generated by a single vaccination against the measles virus can last decades. It has always remained a scientific mystery as to why only some vaccines lead to life-long protection. Now a paper published in the journal, Immunity, led by Prof. David Tarlinton and Dr Marcus Robinson, both from Monash University’s Central Clinical School in Melbourne, Australia, has found that the clue likely lies in the body producing a unique subtype of an immune cell in response to some ...

Exposure to gun violence is one of the great traumas of American life, but its harms are not equally distributed. In a first-of-its-kind study published Tuesday in JAMA Network Open, a Harvard sociology professor and his colleagues set out to examine exposure to shootings by race, sex, and birth year in a long-term study that followed respondents from childhood up to age 40.   “The idea here is to take a life-course perspective,” said Robert J. Sampson, the Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor. ...

We’ve all recently gotten a crash-course in drug repurposing, thanks to near-daily news reports about efforts to identify existing medicines that could help treat COVID-19 in the early phase of the pandemic. A team of scientists at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University jumped into the fray in the spring of 2020, applying novel computational drug repurposing approaches to confront the COVID-19 challenge. This early work led to the surprising prediction that a some, but not all, types of statins (drugs that are widely prescribed to lower cholesterol) might protect patients against SARS-CoV-2 infection. In the flurry of clinical studies being published by other scientists studying ...

A new docudrama featuring the attack on the Sorpe Dam, using motion capture technology and 3D scans to create life-like digital representations of RAF 617 Squadron aircrew, is being premiered in Bristol on 13 May 2023 to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Dambusters raid. Bristol-based film maker Andrew Panton worked with University of Bath researchers at CAMERA, using the latest digital technology to recreate specific scenes for a film featuring the attack on the Sorpe Dam. Andrew started working on the documentary in 2017 with the last surviving Dambuster George ...

Fungal networks interconnecting trees in a forest is a key factor that determines the nature of forests and their response to climate change. These networks have also been viewed as a means for trees to help their offspring and other tree-friends, according to the increasingly popular “mother-tree hypothesis”. An international group of researchers re-examined the evidence for and against this hypothesis in a new study. Trees in a forest are interconnected through thread-like structures of symbiotic fungi, called hyphae, which together form an underground network called a mycorrhizal network. While it is well known that ...

Researchers from Aston University and the University of York have discovered new insights into how the human brain makes perceptual judgements of the external world. The study, published on 8 May in the journal PLOS ONE, explored the computational mechanisms used by the human brain to perceive the size of objects in the world around us. The research, led by Professor Tim Meese, in the School of Optometry at Aston University and Dr Daniel Baker in the Department of Psychology at University of York, tells us more about how our visual system can exploit ‘defocus blur’ to infer perceptual scale, but that it does ...

Leucine-rich repeats containing 4 (LRRC4)—a gene abundantly found in the brain and located on human chromosome 7q31–32—plays a pivotal role in memory formation, autism, spinal cord injury, as well as in determining the malignant potential, development, and progression of glioblastoma (GB), an aggressive cancer involving the brain and/or spinal cord. In a review article published (in volume 136 issue 1 on 5 January 2023, and online on 10 February 2023) in the Chinese Medical Journal, researchers shed light on the ...

EuroPCR, the annual world-leading Course in interventional cardiovascular medicine, has been taking place for over 30 years. It is tailored for all those dedicated to the sharing of knowledge and skills, and improvement of patient care worldwide: interventional cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, imaging specialists, radiologists, nurses, allied professionals and other practitioners, as well as researchers, innovators and industry representatives. The 4-day meeting addresses interventions for coronary and peripheral vessels, for the structural heart including valves, for hypertension, heart failure and stroke, while keeping the community up ...

Just four years ago, the Spanish Supreme Court pointed out in a ruling that there is no such thing as a 'conjugal debt'. In other words, a woman is not obliged to satisfy her husband's sexual needs. It may come as a surprise that this point still needs to be made, but the statistics speak for themselves. According to a national survey carried out in 2019, 7.5% of Spanish women over 16 years old have been raped by their partners or ex-partners. These rapes are usually subject to less attention, and they tend to be "perceived as something less serious". So says Josep Maria Tamarit Sumalla, a full ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – New research finds that the brains of otherwise healthy military personnel who are exposed to explosions show an abnormal brain accumulation of amyloid-beta protein—a protein that plays a role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. The results of the study were published today in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Research over the last several decades suggests that there might be a relationship between repetitive or severe traumatic ...

A study explores the role of the dynamin protein DYN-1 in axonal fusion. The axon is a long, thin protrusion of nerve cells that carries electrical impulses. Severed axons can be repaired by a highly efficient regrowth process known as axonal fusion. Previous research has shown that molecules involved in apoptosis—programmed cell death—are also involved in axonal repair. Because dynamin is involved in apoptosis, specifically in the recognition of dying cells, Brent Neumann and colleagues posited that dynamin might also be involved in axonal repair. The team severed axons in the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans, a multicellular nematode worm with just a few hundred ...

A new U of T Scarborough study finds that climate change is causing a commercially significant marine crab to lose its sense of smell, which could partially explain why their populations are thinning. The research was done on Dungeness crabs and found that ocean acidification causes them to physically sniff less, impacts their ability to detect food odours and even decreases activity in the sensory nerves responsible for smell.   “This is the first study to look at the physiological effects of ocean acidification on the sense of smell in crabs,” says Cosima Porteus, an assistant professor in the department of ...

How do our genes affect what we eat? Can more sustainable diets also improve health? What are the best foods for living longer, fighting cancer, and staying mentally sharp as we age? You’ll find the answers to these questions and more at NUTRITION 2023, the annual flagship meeting of the American Society for Nutrition. Join us July 22-25 in Boston for an exciting lineup of scientific symposia, educational sessions, hot-topic discussions, and award lectures covering the latest developments in nutrition science. Get a sneak peek at the ...

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK (May 9, 2023) — Today, the NYC Media Lab announced the  availability of new immersive educational content for all US-based educators. Developed in  partnership with Verizon for the $1M Museum Initiative, over 50 augmented reality (AR)- and  virtual reality (VR)-focused lesson plans are available on Verizon Innovative Learning HQ (verizon.com/learning)—the free online education portal that brings next-gen learning to all.   Through the $1M Museum Initiative—a nationwide open call for museums and cultural  institutions to develop ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Partisan conflict can be largely explained as differing views on two crucial tasks of society, according to a new theory developed by a pair of prominent social scientists.   In a new article published yesterday (May 8, 2023) in the journal Psychological Inquiry, Roy Baumeister and Brad Bushman say societies flourish by both amassing and distributing resources.   Conservatives focus on amassing resources, while liberals concentrate on distributing resources. The problem is both sides increasingly tend to disparage the value of what the other side champions, the authors said.   “Both tasks are absolutely essential for society,” ...

Even without body parts that allowed for movement, new research shows — for the first time — that some of Earth’s earliest animals managed to be picky about where they lived.  These creatures from the Ediacaran Period, roughly 550 million years ago, are strangely shaped soft-bodied animals that lived in the sea. Researchers have long considered them enigmatic.  “It’s not like studying dinosaurs, which are related to birds that we can observe today,” said Phillip C. Boan, UC Riverside paleontology graduate student and lead author of the new study. “With these animals, because they have no modern descendants, we’re ...

A new solution, known as E-MOTIVE, could provide a major breakthrough in reducing deaths from childbirth-related bleeding, according to a landmark study published today by researchers from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the University of Birmingham.   Postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) - defined as the loss of more than 500 mL of blood within 24 hours after birth - is the leading cause of maternal mortality worldwide. It affects an estimated 14 million women each year and results in around 70 000 deaths – mostly in low and middle-income countries - equivalent to 1 death every 6 minutes   “Postpartum haemorrhage is scary, not always predictable, ...

University of Pittsburgh researchers have developed a universal receptor system that allows T cells to recognize any cell surface target, enabling highly customizable CAR T cell and other immunotherapies for treating cancer and other diseases. The discovery could extend into solid tumors and give more patients access to the game-changing results CAR T cell therapy has produced in certain blood cancers. Described in a Nature Communications study published today, the new approach involves engineering T cells with receptors bearing a universal ...