New research pinpoints a key cause of metastasis from an aggressive form of brain cancer in children and provides a potential new therapy for treating these tumors in the future.    In a paper, published in Nature Cell Biology, physician-scientists from the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh discovered that medulloblastomas hijack a skill that normal brain cells use during their early development and then manipulate it to help tumors spread. “Children with medulloblastomas that have not yet metastasized may have a high likelihood of long-term survival, but if ...

March 6, 2023, Mountain View, CA – Wouldn’t finding life on other worlds be easier if we knew exactly where to look? Researchers have limited opportunities to collect samples on Mars or elsewhere or access remote sensing instruments when hunting for life beyond Earth. In a paper published in Nature Astronomy, an interdisciplinary study led by SETI Institute Senior Research Scientist Kim Warren-Rhodes, mapped the sparse life hidden away in salt domes, rocks and crystals at Salar de Pajonales at the boundary of the Chilean Atacama Desert and Altiplano. Then they trained a machine learning model to recognize the patterns and rules associated with their distributions ...

Boulder, Colo., USA: Oklahoma State University is hosting the 57th annual meeting of the Geological Society of America’s South-Central Section on 13–14 March. The meeting will have a diverse program of workshops, technical sessions, short courses, and field trips that covers a spectrum of geologic disciplines. The list below highlights a selection of environmental-related session topics you might like: · Tar Creek Superfund Site Field Trip (Field Trip) Managed Aquifer Recharge in the Arbuckle Simpson Aquifer (Field Trip) Geoscience Career Workshop: Career Planning and Networking · Hydrogeologic Challenges and Roles ...

Pancreatic cancer is an incurable form of cancer, and gene therapies are currently in clinical testing to treat this deadly disease. A comprehensive review of the gene and cell biotherapies in development to combat pancreatic cancer is published in the peer-reviewed journal Human Gene Therapy. Click here to read the article now The article titled “Pancreatic Cancer Cell and Gene Biotherapies: Past, Present and Future,” contributed by corresponding author Pierre Cordelier, from the University of Toulouse, and coauthors, ...

“In the last several years, the Hemoglobin, Albumin, Lymphocyte, Platelet Score (HALP) has emerged in the literature as a new prognostic biomarker [...]”  BUFFALO, NY- March 6, 2023 – A new review paper was published in Oncotarget's Volume 14 on February 25, 2023, entitled, “What is hemoglobin, albumin, lymphocyte, platelet (HALP) score? A comprehensive literature review of HALP’s prognostic ability in different cancer types.” Since its inception, the Hemoglobin, Albumin, Lymphocyte, Platelet (HALP) Score has gained attention as a new prognostic biomarker to predict several clinical outcomes in a multitude ...

Compared with men, women continue to have a roughly 30-40 percent higher risk of dying following coronary artery bypass surgery, according to a large study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The analysis showed that, without adjusting for differences in age and other health factors that influence risk, the female bypass patients had a 2.8 percent rate of death during or soon after surgery, compared with 1.7 percent for male patients, a nearly 50 percent difference that only dropped 10-20 percent after accounting for these factors. The study, which appears Mar. 1 in JAMA Surgery, was based on ...

It is well established that folic acid supplementation can significantly reduce the risk of birth defects, including neural tube defects like spina bifida, the most common birth defect of the central nervous system and the second most common of all structural birth defects. More than 80 nations, including the U.S. 25 years ago, have established mandated folic acid food fortification programs, which have been successful. “However, there is a lack of research on whether excessive folic acid intake has the potential ...

DANVILLE, Pa. – A Geisinger meta-analysis of recent research on the genetics of cerebral palsy (CP) provides evidence that genetic testing should be offered as the standard of care for people with the disorder, similar to current recommendations for individuals with other neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). The findings were published Tuesday in JAMA Pediatrics. Individual cases of CP—a condition that affects movement, balance and posture—have often been attributed to birth asphyxia, although recent studies show that asphyxia accounts for less than 10% of cases. A growing body of evidence suggests that a significant proportion of CP is caused by genetic changes, ...

Boulder, Colo., USA: Article topics and locations include the Red Lake greenstone belt, Canada; Anak Krakatau volcano, Indonesia; martian soil; Glacial Lake Missoula, Montana, USA; and findings from IODP Expedition 385. These Geology articles are online at https://geology.geoscienceworld.org/content/early/recent . Crustal conductivity footprint of the orogenic gold district in the Red Lake greenstone belt, western Superior craton, Canada Ademola Q. Adetunji; Gaetan Launay; Ian J. Ferguson; Jack M. Simmons; Chong Ma ... A magnetotelluric (MT) study across the Red Lake greenstone belt of the ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Research from scientists at Indiana University and Louisiana State University reveals new information about the role humans have played in large-scale land loss in the Mississippi River Delta — crucial information in determining solutions to the crisis. Published in Nature Sustainability, the study compares the impacts of different human actions on land loss and explains historical trends. Until now, scientists have been unsure about which human-related factors are the most consequential, and why ...

High-dose anticoagulation can reduce deaths by 30 percent and intubations by 25 percent in hospitalized COVID-19 patients who are not critically ill when compared to the standard treatment, which is low-dose anticoagulation. These are the significant findings from the large-scale international “FREEDOM” trial, led by Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, President of Mount Sinai Heart and Physician-in-Chief of The Mount Sinai Hospital, and General Director of the Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC). The study results were announced Monday, March 6, ...

After soliciting feedback from its members, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology sent nine recommendations to the National Institutes of Health last week related to proposed changes to the research grant application peer-review process. The society’s March 1 letter suggested: Validating the proposed framework with a pilot study Revamping the study section grant triage process Conducting outreach before and during implementation Using alternative criteria for certain types of projects Moving forward with simplifying scored criteria and administrative document review The NIH Office of Extramural Research ...

When it comes to chronic infections and cancer, a particular type of immune cell plays a central role in our defenses. Researchers at the University of Basel have uncovered the key to the tenacity of these immune cells in coping with the marathon that is fighting a chronic infection. Their results lay the foundations for more effective therapies and vaccination strategies. Infected and abnormal cells have to go. And as quickly as possible, before any more damage is done. This is the task of what are known as cytotoxic T cells. ...

Plastic is everywhere. Our society cannot do without it: plastics have numerous advantages, are extremely versatile, and are also cost effective. Today, plastics are mainly produced from crude oil. When the products reach the end of their life, they often end up in a waste incineration plant. The energy-intensive production of plastics and their incineration release large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, making plastic products a major contributor to climate change. One way out would be to rely on sustainable production methods, such as the circular economy, in which as much plastic as possible is recycled. Then the main raw material for ...

Trapped electrons traveling in circular loops at extreme speeds inside graphene quantum dots are highly sensitive to external magnetic fields and could be used as novel magnetic field sensors with unique capabilities, according to a new study. Electrons in graphene (an atomically thin form of carbon) behave as if they were massless, like photons, which are massless particles of light. Although graphene electrons do not move at the speed of light, they exhibit the same energy-momentum relationship as photons and can be described as “ultra-relativistic.” ...

About The Study: In this survey study of U.S. parents, one-quarter engaged in misrepresentation or nonadherence regarding public health measures for their children. The most common reason was to preserve parental autonomy. Additional reasons included wanting to resume a normal life for their child and the inability to miss work or other responsibilities, among other reasons.  Authors: Andrea Gurmankin Levy, Ph.D., M.B.E., of Middlesex Community College in Middletown, Connecticut, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our ...

Mineral particles played a key role in raising oxygen levels in the Earth’s atmosphere billions of years ago, with major implications for the way intelligent life later evolved, according to new research.   Up to now, scientists have argued that oxygen levels rose as the result of photosynthesis by algae and plants in the sea, where oxygen was produced as a by-product and released into the atmosphere.   But a research ...

Glass nanoparticles trapped by lasers in extreme vacuum are considered a promising platform for exploring the limits of the quantum world. Since the advent of quantum theory, the question at which sizes an object starts being described by the laws of quantum physics rather than the rules of classical physics has remained unanswered. A team formed by Lukas Novotny (Zurich), Markus Aspelmeyer (Vienna), Oriol Romero-Isart (Innsbruck), and Romain Quidant (Zurich) is attempting to answer precisely this question within the ERC-Synergy project Q-Xtreme. A crucial step ...

A group of scientists from Durham University and University of York have twisted molecules to their breaking point in order to challenge the understanding of chemical bonds. The researchers explored how far the chemical bonding in an aromatic ring can be twisted before its aromatic bonding breaks. They achieved this by making overcrowded aromatic rings. Rather than benzene, they used tropylium, which shares electrons around a ring of seven carbon atoms. Each of these carbon atoms can be functionalised and having seven attachment points in the ring, rather than the six carbon atoms of benzene, allowed ...

Siblings of a child suspected of experiencing physical abuse should also be screened for abusive injuries, according to a new international consensus statement led by researchers at UCL (University College London) and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH).  The team of 27 researchers, from six different continents, are calling for a policy change to stop inconspicuous injuries being missed in contact children (i.e. siblings, cohabiting children, or children who are under the same care), and to help prevent further ...

Offering a tiny cash reward for accuracy, or even briefly appealing to personal integrity, can increase people’s ability to tell the difference between misinformation and the truth, according to a new study. The findings suggest that fake news thrives on social media not only because people are tricked into believing it, but also due to a motivational imbalance: users have more incentive to get clicks and likes than to spread accurate content.  Social psychologists from the University of Cambridge and New York University argue that their study, published in the journal ...

Research from scientists at Louisiana State University and Indiana University reveals new information about the role humans have played in large-scale land loss in the Mississippi River Delta—crucial information in determining solutions to the crisis. The study published today in Nature Sustainability compares the impacts of different human actions on land loss and explains historical trends. Until now, scientists have been unsure about which human-related factors are the most consequential, and why the most rapid land loss in the Mississippi River Delta occurred between the 1960s and 1990s and ...

As countries around the globe seek sustainable energy sources and the U.S. endeavors to become a net-zero emissions economy by 2050, renewable energy sources such as solar panels are in high demand. However, solar panels can take up significant space and are often difficult to scale. Enter the new field of agrivoltaics, which focuses on the simultaneous use of land for both solar power generation and agriculture. For example, replacing the glass in greenhouses with solar panels could power the lamps and water controls in the greenhouse, or even the whole farm. But how does one build solar panels that can absorb energy from sunlight without blocking the light ...

Sometimes in the laboratory there are unexpected results. "Previously it had been observed that autoantibodies are common in severe Covid patients, those who end up in intensive care," says Jonathan Muri, postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB, affiliated with the Università della Svizzera italiana) and co-author of the study. "Instead, in this case we discovered the opposite." The autoantibodies in question neutralize chemokines, molecules that direct immune cell trafficking. "Chemokines are a bit like traffic lights: they tell our immune cells when and where to go in the case ...

Rice, a major food crop, is cultivated on nearly 162 million hectares of land worldwide. One of the most commonly used methods to quantify rice production is rice plant counting. This technique is used to estimate yield, diagnose growth, and assess losses in paddy fields. Most rice counting processes across the world are still carried out manually. However, this is extremely tedious, laborious, and time-consuming, indicating the need for faster and more efficient machine-based solutions. Researchers from China ...