Added-sugar warning labels reduced the likelihood that consumers would order items containing high amounts of added sugar in an online experiment led by University of California, Davis, researchers. Menu labels can help inform consumers about the surprisingly high amount of added sugar in even the smallest sizes of soda or in unexpected items like salad dressings and sauces. In a randomized controlled trial, researchers found that warning labels reduced the probability of ordering a high-added-sugar item by 2.2%.  However, only 21% of the consumers exposed to the added-sugar warning labels noticed them. Among those who noticed ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – About one in five cases of child abuse and neglect is committed by both mothers and fathers, but nearly all the research attention has been focused on when just one parent is involved.   A new study that aimed to shine a light on risk factors for mistreatment coming from both parents found some surprising results.   For example, mothers and fathers who were substance users had lower odds of both being involved in physical or sexual abuse. Couples in which at least one of the parents was a prior abuse perpetrator also had lower odds of physical abuse.   These and other results suggest that the factors that ...

The University of California, Davis, is releasing five new strawberry varieties that are resistant to the soilborne disease Fusarium wilt, have high yields and improved fruit quality. UC Eclipse, UC Golden Gate, UC Keystone, UC Monarch and UC Surfline are available for sale to California nurseries from Foundation Plant Services. Roughly 88% of strawberries grown in the nation come from California. Fusarium wilt is one of the most common reasons for crop loss and death, and yet 55% to 59% of cultivars planted in the state since 2014 have not been resistant, according to UC Davis research. This is the first release ...

ORLANDO, Fla. ― In a new study, researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center created the largest single-cell atlas of brain metastases from renal cell carcinoma (RCC) with matched primary and extracranial metastases, enabling the discovery of key biological mechanisms driving an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment in the brain distinct from that of the kidney or other metastatic sites. Findings were presented today at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2023. The study, led by Elshad Hasanov, M.D., Ph.D., medical oncology fellow at MD Anderson, provides further insights ...

Coral reefs are more than just a vital part of the ocean. They can also reveal clues about the past. Analyzing coral skeletons can paint a rich picture of the environmental history of an ecosystem, from temperature variability to land-use changes. On the U.S. Virgin Island of St. Croix, the ruins of a Danish sugar plantation built from harvested coral bricks could be the key to understanding how and why the area was decimated by the 18th-century transatlantic slave trade. With funding from the National Geographic Society, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) will travel to ...

A nanocellulose wound dressing that can reveal early signs of infection without interfering with the healing process has been developed by researchers at Linköping University, Sweden. Their study, published in Materials Today Bio, is one further step on the road to a new type of wound care. The skin is the largest organ of the human body. A wound disrupts the normal function of the skin and can take a long time to heal, be very painful for the patient and may, in a worst case scenario, lead to death if not treated correctly. Also, hard-to-heal wounds pose a great burden on society, representing about half of all costs in out-patient care. In traditional wound care, ...

CLEVELAND—Even as biomedical engineer Anirban Sen Gupta refines artificial platelets to stem traumatic bleeding, he and his colleagues are seeking new uses for their synthetic solution.   The latest application to show promise involves providing synthetic platelets to treat a genetic condition that prevents blood from clotting, Von Willebrand disease (VWD). The most common of all bleeding disorders, VWD is found in up to 1% of the U.S. population (roughly 3 million people), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.    “There simply hasn’t been any study ...

Whether an animal is flying, running or swimming, its traveling speed is limited by how effectively it sheds the excess heat generated by its muscles, according to a new study led by Alexander Dyer from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany published April 18th in the open access journal PLOS Biology. An animal’s capacity to travel is a crucial part of its survival and dictates where – and how far – it can migrate, find food and mates, and spread into new territories. This becomes even more challenging in a human-dominated world ...

Tuesday, April 18, 2023, CLEVELAND: A Cleveland Clinic landmark study on obesity and cancer, led by Ali Aminian, M.D., director of Cleveland Clinic’s Bariatric & Metabolic Institute, was recognized with a 2023 Top Ten Clinical Research Achievement Award by the Clinical Research Forum (CR Forum). The award-winning paper, the SPLENDID study that was published in JAMA, also received an additional recognition as a Distinguished Clinical Research Awardee. The Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Awards honor groundbreaking achievements in ...

April 18, 2023—BRONX, NEW YORK – Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is surging among U.S. children. The number of youths under age 20 living with the disease has nearly doubled between 2001 and 2017, and yet—aside from increases in childhood obesity—the reasons for this disturbing increase are not clear. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM) and Albert Einstein College of Medicine a six-year, $4.1 million grant to ...

Is it possible to improve the antibodies that the body produces to fight SARS-CoV2? In a study led by researchers from Lund University in Sweden, this was investigated by redesigning antibodies and combining them against the virus. The modified antibodies have been tested in human cells and with mice. Many antibodies used to treat covid infection during the pandemic have been so-called neutralizing antibodies that prevent the virus from infecting the cell. But as the virus has mutated, the ability ...

Firms that have their roots in selling non-physical digital products, also known as “born digital firms,” can establish an international presence without ever physically setting foot in another country. But experience shows that many born digital firms are still choosing to establish a physical presence—funded through foreign direct investments—in key markets. A new study published in the Global Strategy Journal in February 2023 highlights the role of a physical presence in foreign markets for born digital firms. “Past research has indicated that digital technologies are highly fungible, which means that there is little relative gap in value when a resource ...

Solar power technologies, which use solar cells to convert sunlight to electricity or storable fuels, are gaining momentum in a world looking beyond fossil fuels for its energy needs. The dark bluish solar panels that dot rooftops and open fields today are typically made from silicon, a well-tested semiconductor material. Silicon photovoltaic technology has its limitations, though, losing up to 40% of the energy it collects from sunlight in the form of heat waste. Researchers at Colorado State University are studying radical new ways to improve solar power and provide more options for the industry to explore. CSU chemists are proposing to make solar cells using not ...

A Breakthrough for People and Planet: Effective and Inclusive Global Governance for Today and the Future, produced by the independent High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism (HLAB), includes comprehensive and detailed recommendations to strengthen the global architecture for peace, security and finance, deliver just transitions for climate and digitalisation, and ensure more equity and fairness in global decision-making. It also argues that gender equality needs to be at the heart of a reinvigorated multilateral architecture along with recommendations to ensure the multilateral system is more networked, more inclusive and more effective.   Six transformational ...

Oakland residents have bought fewer sugary beverages since a local “soda tax” went into effect, and that is likely improving their health and saving the city money, a new UC San Francisco study found.    According to the study publishing April 18 in PLOS Medicine, purchases of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) dropped 26.8% – compared to similar cities not subject to a tax – between July 2017, when the one-cent-per-ounce tax went into effect, and Dec. 31, 2019.      The research comes a little ...

The upcoming launch of the SMARTER center in the West Virginia University Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources will direct $1.5 million in federal funding toward the development of mobility solutions for transportation challenges faced by rural residents. Beginning this summer, West Virginia’s SMARTER center — standing for Sustainable Mobility and Accessibility Regional Transportation Equity Research — will position the state to begin taking advantage of cutting-edge technologies like self-driving cars within the next decade, according to lead researcher and assistant ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Prescription opioid use could have a negative effect on cognitive function in older adults, according to a recent Mayo Clinic study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The population-based observational study used data from the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging, a research initiative examining the cognitive decline in older people for nearly 20 years.  Findings The study found that 70% of participants received at least one opioid prescription over an ...

Wei Chen, professor of physics at The University of Texas at Arlington, is co-author of an article that has received a prestigious best paper award from Bioactive Materials, an international, peer-reviewed research publication. His study, titled “Nitrogen-doped fluorescence carbon dots as multi-mechanism detection for iodide and curcumin in biological and food samples,” is about the development of nitrogen-doped fluorescent carbon dots as a detection mechanism for iodine and curcumin in food. The Bioactive Materials best paper award is fully merit-based and is given to researchers who publish articles that make significant ...

WASHINGTON — Researchers have developed a new thermoelectric generator (TEG) that can continuously generate electricity using heat from the sun and a radiative element that releases heat into the air. Because it works during the day or night and in cloudy conditions, the new self-powered TEG could provide a reliable power source for small electronic devices such as outdoor sensors. “Traditional power sources like batteries are limited in capacity and require regular replacement or recharging, which can be inconvenient and unsustainable,” said research team leader Jing Liu from Jimei University in China. “Our new TEG design could offer a ...

Casino Guru, a global gambling authority with the most extensive database of online casinos, is partnering with City, University of London, to identify best practice in online gambling self-exclusion and to recommend a set of standards for adoption across different jurisdictions. The origins of the project can be traced back to Casino Guru's Global Self-Exclusion Initiative, launched back in 2020, whose aim is to establish an online self-exclusion scheme on a global scale that would ...

Global experts on solar power strongly urge a commitment to the continued growth of photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing and deployment to power the planet, arguing that lowballing projections for PV growth while waiting for a consensus on other energy pathways or the emergence of technological last-minute miracles “is no longer an option.” The consensus reached by participants in the 3rd Terawatt Workshop last year follows increasingly large projections from multiple groups around the world on the need for large-scale PV to drive electrification and greenhouse gas reduction. The increasing acceptance of PV ...

ABSTRACTS: CT016, CT018 ORLANDO, Fla. ― Researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center presented promising findings from multiple clinical trials today at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2023. The studies, which describe results from a novel FGFR inhibitor and from new PARP/ATR inhibitor combinations, were featured in a plenary session highlighting novel biomarker-driven molecularly targeted therapy trials. Information on all MD Anderson AACR Annual Meeting content can be found at MDAnderson.org/AACR. Basket trial results suggest wider population may benefit from FGFR inhibitor pemigatinib ...

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- A tiny biobattery that could still work after 100 years has been developed by researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York. Last fall, Binghamton University Professor Seokheun “Sean” Choi and his Bioelectronics and Microsystems Laboratory published their research into an ingestible biobattery activated by the Ph factor of the human intestine.  Now, he and PhD student Maryam Rezaie have taken what they learned and incorporated it into new ideas for use outside the body. A new study in the journal Small, which covers nanotechnology, shares the results from using spore-forming bacteria similar ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – Youth in the U.S. are targets of cross-platform digital abuse from peers, strangers, offline acquaintances and even relatives, with threats ranging from harassment and sexual violence to financial fraud, according to a new study from Cornell University and Google researchers. Aided by firsthand accounts, researchers identified the need for more resources to educate youth and parents on digital abuse. They call for better communication and coordination among adult stakeholders in implementing sound protective practices. “We really need to take a closer look at the types of things that young people are experiencing online, because these experiences ...

    U.S. middle and high schools with the most students taking prescription stimulants to treat ADHD also had, overall, the highest percentage of students who misused prescription stimulants within the past year.   The University of Michigan-led study highlights a significant association between ADHD stimulant therapy in schools and prescription stimulant misuse, said Sean Esteban McCabe, U-M professor of nursing and principal investigator on the study.    At some schools, 25% or more of kids reported misusing prescription stimulants in the past year—meaning they used ...