•    Research at Aston University focuses on both creating lab-based meat and its psychological acceptance •    Dr Eirini Theodosiou and Dr Jason Thomas will be speaking at April’s Society matters LIVE event •    Lab made meat on the menu? will take place at Cafe Artum in Hockley Social Club on Thursday 27 April.   Lab made meat will be the topic of the latest Society matters LIVE event from Aston University at Café Artum at Birmingham’s Hockley ...

In a new study, North Carolina State University researchers had 28 high school students create their own machine-learning artificial intelligence (AI) models for analyzing data. The goals of the project were to help students explore the challenges, limitations and promise of AI, and to ensure a future workforce is prepared to make use of AI tools. The study was conducted in conjunction with a high school journalism class in the Northeast. Since then, researchers have expanded the program to high school classrooms in multiple states, including North Carolina. ...

EBViously, a spin-off from Helmholtz Munich (HMGU), is led by world-leading experts in Epstein-Barr virus biology, genetics, and immunity and was founded to develop a safe and highly effective preventive vaccine against a range of diseases caused by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), including infectious mononucleosis, immune disorders, multiple sclerosis, and various cancers. The spin-off is based on a project of HMGU supported by the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF). The project leading to the spin-off was co-funded by the DZIF to enable GMP manufacturing ...

Planners have come up with many innovative ways to prevent flooding caused by heavy downpours — from planting rain gardens to installing green roofs. But in many cases, nothing works quite as well as a simple hole in the ground — a detention basin. That’s the finding of an analysis by University of Cincinnati geography students in a research collaboration with the Hamilton County Conservation District. Lead author and UC College of Arts and Sciences doctoral student Man Qi said cities are developing new ways to trap rainwater and direct it where it’s most wanted, especially during droughts. They call these low-impact development practices, which ...

Prostate cancer tumors harboring BRCA1/2 mutations are exceptionally sensitive to PARP inhibitors, while genomic alterations in other DNA damage response (DDR) genes are less responsive. To identify previously unknown genes whose loss has a profound impact on PARP inhibitor response, researchers from Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center led a multinational effort to perform genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 knockout screens. The study goal was to inform the use of PARP inhibitors beyond BRCA1/2-deficient tumors and support reevaluation ...

Professor Patricia Thornley welcomes latest UK energy security plans But calls for more exploration of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage  She believes plans shouldn’t concentrate solely on energy such as wind and solar power. A leading biomass scientist at Aston University has welcomed the government’s announcement to ensure UK energy is more secure. However, Professor Patricia Thornley, director of Aston University’s Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute (EBRI), believes the government ...

An international group of researchers has created a mixed magnon state in an organic hybrid perovskite material by utilizing the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya-Interaction (DMI). The resulting material has potential for processing and storing quantum computing information. The work also expands the number of potential materials that can be used to create hybrid magnonic systems.   In magnetic materials, quasi-particles called magnons direct the electron spin within the material. There are two types of magnons – optical and acoustic – which refer to the direction of their spin.  “Both optical and acoustic magnons propagate ...

PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA [April 4, 2023] — New research in the April 2023 issue of JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network finds that specially trained oncology infusion room nurses can improve advance care planning (ACP) for patients with advanced cancer. In this study, oncology nurses underwent an immersive, three-day training session on palliative care. As compared to patients who received standard care, those who participated in this targeted and specialized intervention had a ...

Efforts to encourage vaccination might do well to take advantage of the positive feelings and actions between different social groups, according to a study of attitudes toward vaccines among supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement. The study by UCLA psychologists, published in the journal Social Science and Medicine, found that across all racial, ethnic and income groups, people who expressed support for the BLM movement were less hesitant about receiving COVID-19 vaccines than those who did not. The evidence suggests that altruistic feelings about interactions between ...

Geographic access to IVF and other fertility services is significantly higher in the richest parts of Britain, a new study shows. Researchers have warned the current locations of clinics is likely reducing opportunities for those living in more deprived parts of the country to get fertility treatment. Opportunities to have a baby may thus be influenced by a geographical lottery. In 2020 nearly a fifth of local authorities did not have fertility clinics within a radius of 25km, meaning 1.6m women of reproductive ages had no assisted fertility ...

Earth is a dynamic and constantly changing planet. From the formation of mountains and oceans to the eruption of volcanoes, the surface of our planet is in a constant state of flux. At the heart of these changes lies the powerful force of plate tectonics—the movements of Earth’s crustal plates. This fundamental process has shaped the current topography of our planet and continues to play a role in its future. But what was plate tectonic activity like during early Earth? And was the process even occurring during the time when life is thought to have formed? “The dynamic tectonic ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – A new Cornell University-led study suggests that if artificial intelligence tools can counsel a doctor like a colleague – pointing out relevant research that supports the decision – then doctors can better weigh the merits of the recommendation. The researchers will present the new study in April at the Association for Computing Machinery CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Previously, most AI researchers have tried to help doctors evaluate suggestions from decision support tools by explaining how the underlying algorithm works, or what data was used to train the AI. But an ...

The American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) opposes the federal court’s March 30, 2023, ruling in Braidwood Management Inc. v. Becerra and applauds the Department of Justice for acting so swiftly to appeal this decision. Judge O’Connor’s remedies strip the guarantee of no-cost preventative benefits away from the 151 million people insured by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and currently have access to care, such as smoking cessation services, guideline-indicated lung cancer screening, and tuberculosis testing. “CHEST’s ...

The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) is delighted to announce a partnership with the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute, establishing a fellowship program to support members of the Stem Cell Reports Early Career Editorial Board (ECEB). The program facilitates attendance at the ISSCR Annual Meeting, mentoring opportunities, and the development of scientific programs that will cultivate and deepen leadership skills. The Chen Institute Fellowship is designed to directly support ECEB members financially and in career growth. Broadly, activities supported by ...

Impact Journals (Oncotarget's publisher) is proud to participate at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2023, which convenes April 14-19 in Orlando, Florida. BUFFALO, NY-April 4, 2023 – Impact Journals will be participating as an exhibitor at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2023 from April 14-19 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. This year, the AACR meeting theme is: “Advancing ...

Cambridge, Mass. - Researchers at the Forsyth Institute have discovered an important mechanism that may have profound implications for how we prevent colorectal cancer. Oddly enough, their discovery began in the mouth.  Colorectal cancer is the second most deadly cancer, killing over 52,000 people a year. Increasing evidence indicates Fusobacterium nucleatum, an opportunistic oral pathogen is one of the factors causing colorectal cancer. Fusobacteria are often found in healthy mouths, living in balance ...

Each year about 1.5 million people in the U.S. survive a traumatic brain injury due to a fall, car accident, or a sports injury, which can cause immediate and long-term disability.   University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers wanted to better understand what happens in the brain during injury, so they conducted a study in mice to determine how different types of brain cells in mice react to severe trauma. In a new study published in the January issue of Autophagy, they found that after traumatic brain injury, the brain’s immune system cells’ internal recycling ...

Animals, like humans, appear to be troubled by a Linda problem. The famous “Linda problem” was designed by psychologists to illustrate how people fall prey to what is known as the conjunction fallacy: the incorrect reasoning that if two events sometimes occur in conjunction, they are more likely to occur together than either event is to occur alone.  Now, for the first time, UCLA psychology researchers have shown that this type of logical error isn’t the sole province of humans ...

“Cortactin (also known as EMS1 or CTTN) is expressed broadly in a variety of cancers [...]”  BUFFALO, NY- April 4, 2023 – A new editorial paper was published in Oncotarget's Volume 14 on March 21, 2023, entitled, “Impact of cortactin in cancer progression on Wnt5a/ROR1 signaling pathway.” In this editorial, researchers Kamrul Hasan and Thomas J. Kipps from the University of California discuss cortactin—an intracellular cytoskeletal protein that can undergo tyrosine phosphorylation upon external stimulation and promote polymerization and the assembly of the actin filament that is required for cell migration. Upon stimulation, cortactin ...

Male beetles face a trade-off between competing with other males for mating opportunities and repairing damage to their sperm DNA, according to a study publishing April 4th in the open access journal PLOS Biology by Mareike Koppik from Uppsala University, Sweden, and colleagues. Mutations in sperm and egg DNA can reduce the survival and fitness of offspring, so animals use a variety of repair and maintenance mechanisms in their reproductive cells. However, previous research has shown that sperm DNA has more mutations than egg DNA in a variety of ...

The prevalence of multimorbidity, the co-occurrence of two or more chronic conditions, varies depending on exactly how it is defined. And the healthcare costs associated with many disease combinations cost more together than the sum of each individual disease. Those are the conclusions of two new studies, publishing April 4th in the open access journal PLOS Medicine, that broadly analyze the concept and costs of multimorbidity. Multimorbidity is increasing in prevalence due to improved survival from chronic diseases and population aging, and now poses major challenges to healthcare systems worldwide. ...

SCI Canada Awards 2023 dinner, seminar and presentations to take place on 18 April in Toronto  Seminar theme is ‘Unlocking the potential of science talent enabling impact on Canada’s economic growth’ Award winners include the first indigenous community members Dr Paul Smith, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, will receive the 2023 Canada Medal A panel representing the best of Canadian science and industry will discuss its role in boosting economic growth at a special awards event on 18 April in Toronto.  Winners of the 2023 SCI Canada Awards include ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Materials known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have a rigid, cage-like structure that lends itself to a variety of applications, from gas storage to drug delivery. By changing the building blocks that go into the materials, or the way they are arranged, researchers can design MOFs suited to different uses. However, not all possible MOF structures are stable enough to be deployed for applications such as catalyzing reactions or storing gases. To help researchers figure out which MOF structures might work best for a given application, MIT researchers have developed a computational approach that allows ...

Sexual selection provides an answer to the existence of lavishly ornate signals in animals, but not to the question of why such signals are attractive, why do females prefer the extravagant plumage of peacocks? As part of an international team, researchers at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) have shown that the reason is not the presumed wasteful cost of ornaments, as honest signals need not have to be costly at all as long as cheaters would have to pay to fake them. Researchers have developed a general formula to calculate honest equilibrium in any model, independent of the cost ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- A University of California, Riverside, study has identified the biological underpinnings of a reproductive disorder caused by the mutation of a gene. This gene mutation also causes Fragile X Syndrome, a leading genetic cause of intellectual impairment and autism. The researchers found mutations of the Fragile X messenger ribonucleoprotein 1 gene, or FMR1, contribute to premature ovarian failure, or POF, due to changes in neurons that regulate reproduction in the brain and ovaries. The mutation has been associated with early infertility, due ...