As Philadelphia strives to meet greenhouse gas emissions goals established in its 2050 Plan, a better understanding of how zoning can play a role in managing building energy use could set the city up for success. Researchers in Drexel University’s College of Engineering are hoping a machine learning model they’ve developed can support these efforts by helping to predict how energy consumption will change as neighborhoods evolve. In 2017, the city set a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, led in large part by a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from building energy use – which ...

Researchers at the University of Toronto have developed an artificial intelligence system that can create proteins not found in nature using generative diffusion, the same technology behind popular image-creation platforms such as DALL-E and Midjourney. The system will help advance the field of generative biology, which promises to speed drug development by making the design and testing of entirely new therapeutic proteins more efficient and flexible. “Our model learns from image representations to generate fully new proteins, at a very high rate,” says Philip ...

(MEMPHIS, Tenn. – May 04, 2023) Despite the astounding advances made in understanding the biologic underpinnings of cancer, many cancers are missing obvious genetic drivers. When scientists can’t pinpoint the factors that drive cancer, treating it can be much more difficult. Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital hope to solve that problem with an updated way to analyze multi-omic (primarily transcriptomics and proteomics) data. The researchers created a next-generation computational tool to gain new insights from biological data ...

Cells have a fascinating feature to neatly organize their interior by using tiny protein machines called molecular motors that generate directed movements. Most of them use a common type of fuel, a kind of chemical energy, called ATP to operate. Now researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG), the Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life (PoL) and the Biotechnology Center (BIOTEC) of the TU Dresden in Dresden, Germany, and the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) in Bangalore, India, discovered a novel molecular system that uses an alternative chemical energy and employs a novel mechanism ...

For decades, scientists have looked to seaweed as an indicator of the health of coral reefs lying underneath. But what if the seaweed was misleading them? New UBC research reveals it was, and scientists need new ways to determine whether human activity is harming a particular reef. "This is especially critical today, given that reefs globally are threatened by climate-driven stressors,” said Dr. Sara Cannon, a postdoctoral fellow at the UBC Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries and the study's lead author. Local species ...

Perovskite solar cells (PVSCs) are a promising alternative to traditional silicon-based solar cells because of their high power-conversion efficiency and low cost. However, one of the major challenges in their development has been achieving long-term stability. Recently, a research team from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) made a breakthrough by developing an innovative multifunctional and non-volatile additive which can improve the efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells by modulating perovskite film growth. This simple and effective strategy has great potential for facilitating the commercialisation of PVSCs.  “This type of multifunctional ...

Evidence from West Africa about human evolution remains scarce, but recent research has indicated unique patterns of cultural change in comparison to other regions of the continent. A new article in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution adds to our understanding with a study of the oldest directly dated archaeological site in West Africa. The site shows technological continuity spanning roughly 140,000 years and offers insights into the ecological stability of the region. Our species emerged in Africa around 300 thousand years ago and ...

BRONX, NY—May 4, 2023—Acute radiation dermatitis (ARD)—characterized by red, sore, itchy or peeling skin—affects up to 95% of people undergoing radiation treatment for cancer. Severe cases can cause significant swelling and painful skin ulcers that can severely impair quality of life, yet little is known about why this condition occurs and no standardized treatments for preventing severe ARD have been widely adapted. Researchers at Montefiore Einstein Cancer Center (MECC) have found that many cases of ARD involve a common skin bacterium and that a simple, low-cost treatment ...

SEATTLE, WA — May 4, 2023 — A new Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center study in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology investigated how endometriosis, uterine leiomyomas (also known as fibroids) and a common intervention for these conditions—hysterectomy—changed ovarian cancer risk in Black and white women. Scientists found fibroids were associated with an increased risk of ovarian cancer in both Black and white women, with hysterectomy modifying the risk of cancer in both groups. However, researchers also found that while Black and white women with endometriosis had a higher risk of ovarian cancer overall, hysterectomy only ...

Vanishing glaciers threaten alpine biodiversity  With glaciers melting at unprecedented rates due to climate change, invertebrates that live in the cold meltwater rivers of the European Alps will face widespread habitat loss, warn researchers.  Many of the species are likely to become restricted to cold habitats that will only persist higher in the mountains, and these areas are also likely to see pressures from the skiing and tourism industries or from the development of hydroelectric plants.  The research study – led jointly by the University of Leeds and ...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Neuropathic pain — abnormal hypersensitivity to stimuli — is associated with impaired quality of life and is often poorly managed. Estimates suggest that 3 percent to 17 percent of adults suffer from neuropathic pain, including a quarter of people with diabetes and a third of people with HIV. In a paper published in the journal Neuron, researchers report that a mechanism involving the enzyme Tiam1 in dorsal horn excitatory neurons of the spinal cord both initiates and maintains neuropathic pain. Moreover, they show that targeting spinal Tiam1 with anti-sense oligonucleotides injected ...

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and collaborating institutions have identified a strategy cancerous tumors use to remotely disrupt the development of an immune response that could stop their growth. Published in the journal Cell Stem Cell, the study shows in animal models that breast cancer tumors send molecular signals to the bone marrow, the birthplace of immune cells. The signals alter the natural environment of the bone marrow in such a way that it suppresses the response to fight back the tumor. Interestingly, ...

Young men with cannabis (marijuana) use disorder have an increased risk of developing schizophrenia, according to a study led by researchers at the Mental Health Services in the Capital Region of Denmark and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health. The study, published in Psychological Medicine, analyzed detailed health records data spanning 5 decades and representing more than 6 million people in Denmark to estimate the fraction of schizophrenia cases that could be attributed ...

About The Study: In this observational study of 1,340 women with high-risk breast cancer, strongest collective adherence to cancer prevention lifestyle recommendations was associated with significant reductions in disease recurrence and mortality. Education and implementation strategies to help patients adhere to cancer prevention recommendations throughout the cancer care continuum may be warranted in breast cancer.  Authors: Rikki A. Cannioto, Ph.D., Ed.D., of the Roswell Park Comprehensive ...

About The Study: Results of this diagnostic study including 4,095 retinal fundus images collected from 245 neonates suggest that it can be very challenging to remove information relevant to self-reported race from fundus photographs. As a result, AI algorithms trained on fundus photographs have the potential for biased performance in practice, even if based on biomarkers rather than raw images. Regardless of the methodology used for training AI, evaluating performance in relevant subpopulations is critical. Authors: J. ...

  Proteins that act like air traffic controllers, managing the flow of signals in and out of human cells, have been observed for the first time with unprecedented detail using advanced microscopy techniques.   Described in new research published today in Cell, an international team of researchers led by Professor Davide Calebiro from the University of Birmingham has seen how beta-arrestin, a protein involved in managing a common and important group of cellular gateways, known as receptors, works.   Beta-arrestin is involved in controlling the activity of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) which are the largest group of receptors ...

Neuropathy is a type of chronic pain triggered by nerve injury or certain diseases. It affects millions of people worldwide, significantly deteriorating their quality of life. Neuropathy, for example, might emerge from hurting the sciatic nerve on the lower back or the spinal cord, in diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes or after chemotherapy drugs. Current therapies attempt to suppress the symptoms with pain medications like opioids, but their efficacy is low, and they carry undesirable side effects. A group led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and University of Alabama at Birmingham took on the challenge of investigating the process ...

Storing data in DNA sounds like science fiction, yet it lies in the near future. Professor Tom de Greef expects the first DNA data center to be up and running within five to ten years. Data won’t be stored as zeros and ones in a hard drive but in the base pairs that make up DNA: AT and CG. Such a data center would take the form of a lab, many times smaller than the ones today. De Greef can already picture it all. In one part of the building, new files will be encoded via DNA synthesis. Another part will contain large fields of capsules, each capsule packed with a file. A robotic arm will remove a capsule, read its contents and place it back. We’re talking about synthetic ...

Today's computers are based on microprocessors that execute so-called gates. A gate can, for example, be an AND operation, i.e. an operation that adds two bits. These gates, and thus computers, are irreversible. That is, algorithms cannot simply run backwards. “If you take the multiplication 2*2=4, you cannot simply run this operation in reverse, because 4 could be 2*2, but likewise 1*4 or 4*1,” explains Wolfgang Lechner, professor of theoretical physics at the University of Innsbruck. If this were possible, however, it would be feasible ...

New University of Virginia School of Medicine insights into how the brain responds to seizures could facilitate the development of much-needed treatments for the third of patients who don’t respond to existing options. The research, from the labs of UVA’s Ukpong B. Eyo, PhD, and Edward Perez-Reyes, PhD, suggests that immune cells called microglia play important, beneficial roles in controlling various types of seizures. Prior research had left scientists uncertain whether these cells were helpful or harmful during the brain’s ...

Taylor & Francis is delighted to announce the results of Knowledge Unlatched (KU) 2023, with support pledged to convert over 50 book titles to open access (OA). Titles to benefit from this support cover a broad range of humanities and social science disciplines as well as key topic areas, including climate change, global health, and gender studies. Under the KU crowdfunding model, research libraries around the world unite to support the publication costs of new eBooks and enable access for all to important new research. Since 2016, when Taylor & Francis’ partnership with Knowledge Unlatched began, over 100 books have been published OA at no cost ...

Obesity is a known risk factor for colorectal cancer. Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) have now shown that this association has probably been significantly underestimated so far. The reason: many people unintentionally lose weight in the years before a colorectal cancer diagnosis. If studies only consider body weight at the time of diagnosis, this obscures the actual relationship between obesity and colorectal cancer risk. In addition, the current study shows that unintentional weight loss may be an early indicator of colorectal ...

Worms might not be depressed, per se. But that doesn’t mean they can’t benefit from antidepressants. In a new study, Northwestern University researchers exposed roundworms (a well-established model organism in biological research) to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a class of drugs used for treating depression and anxiety. Surprisingly, this treatment improved the quality of aging females’ egg cells. Not only did exposure to SSRIs decrease embryonic death by more than twofold, it also decreased chromosomal abnormalities in surviving offspring by more than twofold. Under the microscope, ...

Experts from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) have published new guidance to help doctors correctly diagnose hoarding disorder. Hoarding disorder affects around 2% of the population but remains a largely misunderstood mental health condition. It was only added to the International Classification of Diseases in 2019, having previously been classified under Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Published in the British Journal of General Practice, the new guidance was written by Dr Sharon Morein and Dr Sanjiv Ahluwalia of Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in Cambridge, England, to help health professionals spot the signs of hoarding disorder and intervene. ARU experts have also organised a free ...

As people get older, they aspire to live healthy lives as free as possible from the natural decline of cognitive abilities that occurs with aging. At Baylor College of Medicine, researchers have been studying the biological underpinnings of age-associated cognitive decline and developing nutritional strategies to promote healthy brain aging. They report today in the journal Antioxidants that supplementing GlyNAC – a combination of glycine and N-acetylcysteine as precursors of the natural antioxidant glutathione – improved or reversed age-associated cognitive decline in old mice and improved ...