Addition of the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab to standard of care for patients with advanced soft tissue sarcoma of the limb significantly improved disease-free survival, according to the results of the SU2C-SARC032 clinical trial led by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, UPMC, Duke University and Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network. The findings, published today in The Lancet, establish pembrolizumab as a new option for patients with this disease. “Soft tissue sarcoma is a rare and complex disease with over 50 different subtypes, which makes it hard to study in large clinical trials,” said lead author ...

The chances of intelligent life emerging in our Universe – and in any hypothetical ones beyond it – can be estimated by a new theoretical model which has echoes of the famous Drake Equation. This was the formula that American astronomer Dr Frank Drake came up with in the 1960s to calculate the number of detectable extraterrestrial civilisations in our Milky Way galaxy. More than 60 years on, astrophysicists led by Durham University have produced a different model which instead focuses on the conditions created by the acceleration of the Universe's expansion and the amount ...

The work provides novel genetic insights into dietary preferences and opens the possibility of targeting SI to selectively reduce sucrose intake at the population level. The study was led by Dr. Peter Aldiss, now a group leader in the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham, alongside Assistant Professor  Mette K Andersen, at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Centre for Basic Metabolic Research in Copenhagen and Professor Mauro D’Amato at CIC bioGUNE in Spain and LUM University in Italy. It also involves scientists internationally from Copenhagen, Greenland, Italy and Spain as part of the ‘Sucrase-isomaltase working group’. Dr Aldiss said: “Excess ...

[Vienna, November 13, 2024] — With artificial intelligence increasingly permeating every aspect of our lives, experts are becoming more and more concerned about its dangers. In some cases, the risks are pressing, in others they won't emerge until many months or even years from now. Scientists point out in The Royal Society’s journal that a coherent approach to understanding these threats is still elusive. They call for a complex systems perspective to better assess and mitigate these risks, particularly in light of long-term uncertainties and complex interactions between A.I. and society. "Understanding the risks of A.I. requires recognizing the intricate interplay ...

Global carbon emissions from fossil fuels have reached a record high in 2024, according to new research by the Global Carbon Project science team. The 2024 Global Carbon Budget projects fossil carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions of 37.4 billion tonnes, up 0.8% from 2023. Despite the urgent need to cut emissions to slow climate change, the researchers say there is still “no sign” that the world has reached a peak in fossil CO2 emissions. With projected emissions from land-use change (such as deforestation) of 4.2 billion tonnes, total CO2 emissions are projected to be 41.6 billion tonnes in 2024, up from 40.6 billion tonnes last year. Over the last 10 years, fossil ...

The winners of the Applied Microbiology International Horizon Awards 2024 have been announced. The prizes, awarded by the learned society Applied Microbiology International (AMI), celebrate the brightest minds in the field and promote the research, group, projects, products and individuals who continue to help shape the future of applied microbiology. The One Health Microbiome Center at Penn State has been named as this year’s winner of the WH Pierce Global Impact in Microbiology Prize 2024. This award acknowledges and celebrates individuals, teams, or organisations that have made groundbreaking contributions to global challenges through applied microbiology. The One Health Microbiome ...

The opioid crisis has left an estimated 2.5 million people 18 and older in the U.S. with opioid use disorder, or OUD. Despite increased attention to the heavy toll taken by OUD, key risk factors such as intimate partner violence (IPV) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are often overlooked. Both increase the risk of OUD and complicate recovery efforts. A team of MUSC researchers led by clinical psychologists Amber Jarnecke, Ph.D., and Tanya Saraiya, Ph.D., both of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral ...

HERSHEY, Pa — Exercise has been shown to improve brain health and reduce the risk of cognitive decline and dementia over the long-term. But engaging in everyday physical activity has immediate benefits for brain health, according to a new study from researchers in the Penn State College of Medicine. The team found that middle-aged people who participated in everyday movement showed improvement in cognitive processing speed equivalent to being four years younger, regardless of whether the activity was lower intensity, like walking the dog or doing household chores, or higher intensity, like jogging. The findings were published ...

Updated Guideline Highlights: The American Heart Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics update recommendations for untrained lay rescuers and trained rescuers resuscitating adults and children who have drowned. One important update is the recommendation to provide cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) with rescue breaths and chest compressions to all persons in cardiac arrest following drowning after removal from the water. The updated recommendations for resuscitation following drowning are, for the first time, well codified, accompanied ...

Despite increased concerns about doctors spreading false medical claims during the COVID-19 pandemic, medical boards rarely take disciplinary action against physicians for spreading misinformation, according to a new study by Richard S. Saver, Arch T. Allen Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law and Professor in the Department of Social Medicine at the UNC School of Medicine, published in JAMA Network Open.  Through analysis of over 3,100 medical board disciplinary proceedings across the nation’s five most populous states, Saver found that spreading misinformation to the public was the least common reason for ...

BALTIMORE, November 12, 2024— Researchers at Kennedy Krieger Institute’s International Center for Spinal Cord Injury (ICSCI) have made a remarkable advancement in treating children with Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM), a rare but severe neurological condition that causes sudden paralysis. A new study, published in the journal Children, demonstrates that a combination of Transcutaneous Spinal Cord Stimulation (TSS) and movement training can help children with AFM improve their ability to walk. TSS is a non-invasive therapy ...

A new teacher prep initiative from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s College of Education & Human Development received a $3.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Teacher Quality Partnership grant program to establish and strengthen a Grow Your Own Network across Acadiana. This initiative, designed to address teacher shortages in the south-central region of Louisiana, will build a regional network connecting local school districts with higher education institutions ...

To better understand why some cancer patients struggle to fight off infections, Georgia Tech researchers have created tiny lab-grown models of human immune systems. These miniature models — known as human immune organoids — mimic the real-life environment where immune cells learn to recognize and attack harmful invaders and respond to vaccines. Not only are these organoids powerful new tools for studying and observing immune function in cancer, their use is likely to accelerate vaccine development, better predict disease treatment response for patients, and even speed up clinical trials.  “Our synthetic ...

Acupuncture. Ketamine infusions. “Electroshock” or electroconvulsive therapy. The existing treatment options for those diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD), may sometimes feel daunting or expensive alternatives to medication. However, a groundbreaking study from Emory University demonstrates how psilocybin-assisted therapy could impact more than 5 million people in the U.S. pending approval from the FDA. The findings highlight both the ...

While great strides have been made to ensure children have access to proper asthma care in their home and community, linking those environments to the care that children receive while in school has been a challenge. In a new study, researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) demonstrate that community health workers can play a critical role in integrating all environments where children encounter asthma triggers, and care coordination provided by these workers may be a cost-effective way to achieve that. The findings were recently published by JAMA ...

RENTON, Wash. [Nov. 12, 2024] – New real-world data from Providence, Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN), and Microsoft Research reveals that Comprehensive Genomic Profiling (CGP), when done early in a cancer patient’s diagnosis, leads to better personalized treatment and patient outcomes. The findings come out of the first two years of a five-year, real-world study, which was published today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology - Oncology Practice (JCO-OP).  Through a novel approach, the study employed pathologist-driven CGP testing ...

Strabismus, a misalignment of the eyes that occurs especially in children, has no bearing on intelligence or personality, but animated movies tend to use the condition to signify a villainous, dopey, or clumsy character, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “When animators are figuring out what a character is going to look like, they have to decide on every little detail of that character's appearance, and so it's not by chance that an animated character happens to have strabismus,” says Michael ...

Researchers from Erasmus University and KU Leuven published a new Journal of Marketing study that examines how retailers respond when suppliers establish direct channels to reach end-consumers and how suppliers can take steps to avoid a backlash. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled “How Retailers Change Ordering Strategies When Suppliers Go Direct” and is authored by Michiel Van Crombrugge, Els Breugelmans, Femke Gryseels, and Kathleen Cleeren. Recently, Sony began selling PlayStation products through its PlayStation Direct online store in the UK, ...

Coral larvae reduce their metabolism and increase nitrogen uptake to resist bleaching in high temperatures, according to a study published November 12th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Ariana S. Huffmyer of the University of Washington, US, and colleagues. High ocean temperatures cause coral bleaching, which results from the disruption of the relationship between corals and their symbiotic algae, an increasing concern as global temperatures rise. However, relatively little research has examined the effects of high temperatures ...

AUSTIN, Texas — The federal tax gap — money people and companies owe Uncle Sam but fail to pay on time — has climbed to historic highs: $696 billion in 2022, according to the IRS. It’s money that, if recouped, could fund infrastructure or education or pay down government debt. One way to collect that money is through lawsuits prompted by corporate whistleblowers — often present or former employees who know a company’s finances and expose its transgressions. Federal law includes ...

Bioluminescence is the natural chemical process of light creation in some living creatures that makes fireflies flicker and some jellyfish glow. Scientists have long been interested in borrowing the secrets of these animals' light-producing genes to create similar effects in vertebrates, for a variety of biomedical applications. UC Santa Cruz Assistant Professor of Biomolecular Engineering Andy Yeh is designing completely artificial proteins that produce bioluminescence to serve as a non-invasive method for bioimaging, diagnostics, drug discovery, and more. A new paper published in the flagship journal Chem reports on a new series of bioluminescent ...

DETROIT — A recent study published in the journal Scientific Reports correlates higher levels of pollutant particulate matter to higher occurrences of head and neck aerodigestive cancer. The article, "Air Pollution Exposure and Head and Neck Cancer Incidence," is the work of a multi-institutional collaboration with researchers from Wayne State University, Johns Hopkins University and Mass General Brigham. The study was led by John Cramer, Ph.D., associate professor of otolaryngology, and John Peleman, M.D., medical resident in the Department of Otolaryngology, in the Wayne State University School of Medicine. They collaborated with Mass General Brigham, an integrated ...

The team was led by LSU Alumni Professor Heather McKillop, who first discovered wooden buildings preserved there below the sea floor, along with associated artifacts, and the only ancient Maya wooden canoe paddle in 2004. Her key collaborator, Assistant Professor Elizabeth Sills at the University of Texas at Tyler, began working with McKillop as a master’s student and then as a doctoral student at LSU. Since their initial discovery of wood below the sea floor in Belize, the team has uncovered an extensive pattern of sites that include “salt kitchens” for boiling ...

Every year around this time, California’s wildland firefighters hold their breath as hot, dry winds threaten to spread flames across the state. As such conflagrations grow in size and severity throughout the Western U.S., the strain on fire managers has intensified. A new report from Stanford University’s Climate and Energy Policy Program provides a blueprint for fostering a more inclusive, diverse and well-supported workforce to meet the increasing need for fire mitigation and management. “The wellbeing of the wildland fire workforce has ...

MBARI researchers have discovered a remarkable new species of sea slug that lives in the deep sea. Bathydevius caudactylus swims through the ocean’s midnight zone with a large gelatinous hood and paddle-like tail, and lights up with brilliant bioluminescence. The team published a description of the animal, nicknamed the “mystery mollusc,” in the journal Deep-Sea Research Part I. “Thanks to MBARI’s advanced underwater technology, we were able to prepare the most comprehensive description of a deep-sea animal ever made. We’ve ...