DURHAM, N.C. – Most of us woke up this morning, used energy and technology to learn about the weather and the news, got a fresh cup of coffee, and went about our day informed and refreshed. Imagine if every woman in a poor village in rural Africa or Asia could power on technology for vital information the same way. Yet, they cannot. Lack of energy access disempowers women. Research demonstrates that empowered people are far more resilient to climate shocks and harms. While energy technology can advance resilience, it can also create new vulnerabilities. Think of disasters that can damage complex energy systems or destroy off-grid solar home systems. A new review published in Nature ...

HERSHEY, Pa. — Black and Hispanic patients with severe allergies are less likely to get a common treatment, allergen immunotherapy, compared to white patients, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers. They said identifying the causes, which could include being less likely than white patients to be referred to an allergist and the difficulty accessing treatment due to time and other resource constraints, and developing solutions for this health disparity, could help patients get relief from symptoms, including runny nose, congestion, post-nasal drip, sinus pain and ...

Firearm injury is now the leading cause of death among U.S. children and adolescents. As its toll grows, researchers have focused on stopping violence in the moments before it happens. But new research led by the University of Washington suggests that interventions made earlier in young people’s lives may reduce the chances of it happening at all.   The study, published April 6 in JAMA Network Open, found that UW’s Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system reduced handgun carrying among adolescents growing up in rural areas. By the 12th grade, adolescents in CTC communities were ...

Proteins are the key players for virtually all molecular processes within the cell. To fulfil their diverse functions, they have to interact with other proteins. Such protein-protein interactions are mediated by highly complementary surfaces, which typically involve many amino acids that are positioned precisely to produce a tight, specific fit between two proteins. However, comparatively little is known about how such interactions are created during evolution. Classical evolutionary theory suggests that any new biological feature involving many components (like the amino acids that enable an interaction between proteins) ...

BOSTON – Scientists have long predicted that global climate change could fuel an increase in the frequency and severity of natural disasters including hurricanes, heatwaves and cold snaps, droughts and floods and wildfires. In a paper published in the Journal of Climate Change and Health, members of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) Fellowship in Disaster Medicine estimated that climate change-related natural disasters have increased since 1980 and have already cost the United States more than $2 trillion in recovery costs. Their analysis also suggests that as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and the global temperature continue to rise, ...

Washington, April 6, 2023—The American Educational Research Association (AERA) has announced the winners of its 2023 awards for excellence in education research. “We are honored to present this year’s awards to an excellent and deserving group of scholars,” said AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine. “Their contributions to education research, across all career stages and fields, have made and continue to make a difference in the lives of students and educators.” AERA will ...

When you walk through a forest, you are surrounded by carbon. Every branch and every leaf, every inch of trunk and every tendril of unseen root contains carbon pulled from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. And as long as it stays stored away inside that forest, it’s not contributing to the rising concentrations of carbon dioxide that cause climate change. So it’s only natural that we might want to use forests’ carbon-storage superpower as a potential climate solution in addition to reducing human greenhouse gas emissions. But climate change itself might compromise how permanently forests are able to store carbon and keep it out of the air, according to a new paper by ...

AURORA, Colo. (April 6, 2023) – Understanding how cancer develops is critical for designing effective, personalized cancer therapies. Researchers have known for years that cancer begins with mutations in certain types of genes. One of these types of cancer genes are so-called “tumor suppressors.” When functioning normally, tumor suppressor genes can stop malignant cells from undergoing uncontrolled cell proliferation and initiate a process of cell elimination called apoptosis, a form of cell death. Mutations in tumor suppressor genes can cause these genes to lose their functionality, eventually contributing to the development of cancer. In a recent ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – To manage atmospheric carbon dioxide and convert the gas into a useful product, Cornell University scientists have dusted off an archaic – now 120 years old – electrochemical equation. The calculation – named the Cottrell equation for chemist Frederick Gardner Cottrell, who developed it in 1903 – can help today’s researchers understand the several reactions that carbon dioxide can take when electrochemistry is applied and pulsed on a lab bench. The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide presents an opportunity to transform the gas from an environmental liability to a feedstock ...

Currently, 12.5% of U.S. adults smoke cigarettes. At the same time, more than one-third of U.S. adults seek health information online, making social media a potentially powerful platform for anti-tobacco campaigns. However, limited research has been done on effective social media strategies for anti-smoking campaigns.  An interprofessional Mason research team led by Associate Professors in the Department of Health Administration and Policy Hong Xue and Gilbert Gimm found that the most popular anti-tobacco campaigns on Facebook were informational and discussed the negative effects of smoking. ...

East Hanover, NJ – April 6, 2023 – Ada Chen, PhD, at Kessler Foundation was awarded a two-year grant for $187,000 from the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation to improve the return-to-work rate and employment outcomes for inpatients with spinal cord injury (SCI). Her study is titled “Employment after SCI: Stakeholder Perceptions and Experiences of Vocational Resource Facilitation.” “The Vocational Resource Facilitation (VRF) pilot project – developed as an early intervention – has already shown promising outcomes in improving return-to-work rates,” said Dr. Chen. “Further investigation of VRF participant and stakeholder experiences and perceptions ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE A new drug, a monoclonal antibody known as enoblituzumab, is safe in men with aggressive prostate cancer and may induce clinical activity against cancer throughout the body, according to a phase 2 study led by investigators at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and its Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. If confirmed in additional studies, enoblituzumab could become the first promising antibody-based immunotherapy agent against prostate cancer.   In a clinical trial, 32 men with high-risk or very high-risk prostate cancers who were scheduled ...

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have become a mainstay of the field of nanotechnology. Finding innovative applications across materials science, electronics, and medicine, CNTs have garnered a lot of attention from researchers in recent years. However, the International Chemical Secretariat (ChemSec) has moved to flag CNTs on the “Substitute It Now!” database of chemicals likely to be restricted for use. In fact, due to their persistence in nature and potential toxicity to humans, ChemSec has proposed that adequate assessments of CNTs' risk to human health are urgently needed. Following their entry into the body, and much like asbestos, CNTs are targeted by the immune system and preferentially ...

A key enzyme in sugar metabolism is inactivated particularly easily and efficiently by oxidative stress. Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) have now shown that with this oxidation, cells switch to an alternative sugar breakdown pathway and can thus escape oxidative stress. Cancer cells in particular benefit from this mechanism, which can also protect them from therapy-related damage. One of the central enzymes in sugar breakdown, GAPDH (glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase), ...

Think about how frustrating it is to try to fit a gift into a box that is too small. Sometimes you just need a bigger box. Building a bigger box Nanocages are tiny artificial containers that can be used to deliver therapeutics to a target destination in the body. But some drug molecules are like gifts that are too big for a standard-sized nanocage ‘box’. Now, in an article published today in Nature Synthesis, researchers from the University of Cambridge describe how they have built a super-sized nanocage that could be used to deliver larger drug cargoes. They have built a bigger box. Simple building blocks Rational control over the self-assembly of these types of cages generally ...

Understanding why certain materials work better than others when it comes to energy storage is a crucial step for developing the batteries that will power electronic devices, electric vehicles and renewable energy grids. Researchers at Drexel University have developed a new technique that can quickly identify the exact electrochemical mechanisms taking place in batteries and supercapacitors of various compositions — a breakthrough that could speed the design of higher performing energy storage devices. Reported in Nature Energy, the Drexel team’s ...

Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle have engineered stem cells that do not generate dangerous arrhythmias, a complication that has to date thwarted efforts to develop stem-cell therapies for injured hearts. “We have found what we have to tackle to make these cells safe,” said Silvia Marchiano, a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Chuck Murry at the UW Medicine Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine. Marchiano is the lead author of a paper describing the findings published Thursday, April ...

Of the many different kinds of stars, asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, usually slightly larger and older than our own sun, are known producers of interstellar dust. Dusty AGBs are particularly prominent producers of dust, and the light they shine happens to vary widely. For the first time, a long-period survey has found the variable intensity of dusty AGBs coincides with variations in the amount of dust these stars produce. As this dust can lead to the creation of planets, its study can shed light on our own origins. You’ve probably heard of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) which ...

Extreme water events have been shown to affect human security in many ways. In a research article published today in the new journal Nature Water researchers from Politecnico di Milano and University of California at Berkeley delve deeper into the complex nexus between droughts and conflicts in Central America. For the decades from 1996 to 2016 explore how water availability affects agricultural production and food security, and investigate the nexus between drought-induced food insecurity and the emergence of conflict in the region. Cities in ...

A fasting diet which focuses on eating early in the day could be the key to reducing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Researchers from the University of Adelaide and South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) compared two different diets:  a time restricted, intermittent fasting diet and a reduced calorie diet to see which one was more beneficial for people who were prone to developing type 2 diabetes. “Following a time restricted, intermittent fasting diet could help lower the chances of developing type 2 diabetes,” said ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new machine learning model that estimates optimal treatment timing for sepsis could pave the way for support tools that help physicians personalize treatment decisions at the patient bedside, researchers say. In a paper published today (April 6, 2023) in Nature Machine Intelligence, scientists from The Ohio State University describe the new model, which uses artificial intelligence to take on the complex question of when to administer antibiotics to patients with a suspected case of sepsis. Time is of the essence ...

Researchers Ludovico Lami (QuSoft, University of Amsterdam) and Mark M. Wilde (Cornell) have made significant progress in quantum computing by deriving a formula that predicts the effects of environmental noise. This is crucial for designing and building quantum computers capable of working in our imperfect world.   The choreography of quantum computing Quantum computing uses the principles of quantum mechanics to perform calculations. Unlike classical computers, which use bits that can be either 0 or 1, quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, which can be in a superposition of 0 and 1 simultaneously. This ...

An analysis of strands of human hair from a burial site in Menorca, Spain, indicates that ancient human civilisations used hallucinogenic drugs derived from plants, reports a new paper published in Scientific Reports. These findings are the first direct evidence of ancient drug use in Europe, which may have been used as part of ritualistic ceremonies. Previous evidence of prehistoric drug use in Europe has been based on indirect evidence such as the detection of opium alkaloids in Bronze Age containers, the ...

Analysing changes to DNA in the blood can improve the ability to predict a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes within a decade. Scientists looked at the influence of these changes – known as DNA methylation – alongside other risk factors in almost 15,000 people to predict the likelihood of developing the condition years in advance of any symptoms developing. The findings could lead to preventative measures being put in place earlier, reducing the economic and health burden caused by type 2 diabetes. Methylation is a chemical process in the body in which a small molecule called a methyl group is added to DNA. Current ...

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA and SHENZHEN, CHINA - 31.03.23 Akili Labs (Pty) Ltd, a pioneer of cost-effective molecular diagnostics and secure genomic data storage solutions, and BGI Genomics Co. Ltd, the world’s leading integrated solutions provider of precision medicine, today announced the signing of a technology transfer agreement that will provide the Southern region of Africa with clinical-grade sequencing solutions. "Improving the cost and turnaround time of genetic sequencing services will play a major role in the expansion of precision medicine-driven healthcare in Africa," said Charles F.J. Faul, co-founder ...