According to NOAA Fisheries, more than 80 percent of marine aquaculture production in the United States consists of bivalve mollusks such as oysters, clams and mussels. However, it’s not just humans who enjoy eating these shellfish, so do marine rays. They like to “crunch” on clams, which can sometimes take a big bite out of clammers’ profits. Part of the process of culturing hard clams (Mercenaria mercenaria) involves deploying them in submerged bottom leases in the marine environment where clams can grow to market size. When deployed onto the clam lease, clammers incorporate a variety of anti-predator ...

AMES, IA — With the youngest baby boomers sliding into retirement, adults aged 65 and older are expected to outnumber children by 2030. The demographic shift will be a first in U.S. history. But many rural areas, especially in the Midwest and Great Plains, are already experiencing this. Researchers are looking to small towns in Iowa to understand how some support aging in place better than others. Their findings, published in Journal of Rural Studies, could help communities plan for the ...

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a debilitating condition characterized by alternating states of depression (known as depressive episodes) and abnormal excitement or irritability (known as manic episodes). Large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have revealed that variations in the genes present on the fatty acid desaturase (FADS) locus are linked to an increased risk of BD. Enzymes coded by FADS genes—FADS1 and FADS2—convert or "biosynthesize" omega-3 fatty acids into the different forms required by the human body. Omega-3 fatty acids like ...

Researchers have achieved a breakthrough to enable ‘perfectly secure’ hidden communications for the first time. The method uses new advances in information theory methods to conceal one piece of content inside another in a way that cannot be detected. This may have strong implications for information security, besides further applications in data compression and storage. A group of researchers has achieved a breakthrough in secure communications by developing an algorithm that conceals sensitive information so effectively that it is impossible to detect that anything has been hidden. The team, led by ...

The study supports the therapeutic benefit of this drug in postmenopausal patients with hormone-receptor negative breast tumours and RANK protein expression. "These results revive the option of starting clinical trials of denosumab in breast cancer by selecting patients," says Eva González-Suarez, CNIO researcher and lead author. The results are published today in the scientific journal EMBO Molecular Medicine. The drug denosumab is currently used to treat osteoporosis and bone metastases. For more than a decade, its potential therapeutic benefit in the treatment of breast cancer has also been studied. However, due to conflicting clinical ...

A terrestrial planet hovering between Mars and Jupiter would be able to push Earth out of the solar system and wipe out life on this planet, according to a UC Riverside experiment. UCR astrophysicist Stephen Kane explained that his experiment was meant to address two notable gaps in planetary science.  The first is the gap in our solar system between the size of terrestrial and giant gas planets. The largest terrestrial planet is Earth, and the smallest gas giant is Neptune, which is four times wider and 17 times more massive than Earth. There is nothing in between.  “In other star ...

Their findings highlight that embalming or "angel care" can effectively prevent virus transmission, to allow family members to say goodbye During the pandemic, COVID-19 control measures in several countries prevented family members from coming into contact with loved ones who died from the infection. This had an impact on cremation practices and caused emotional distress. Researchers from Japan have now shown that, while deceased SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals may be a potential source of the ...

Germination is a crucial stage in the life of a plant as it will leave the stage of seed resistant to various environmental constraints (climatic conditions, absence of nutritive elements, etc.) to become a seedling much more vulnerable. The survival of the young plant depends on the timing of this transition. It is therefore essential that this stage be finely controlled. A Swiss team, led by scientists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), has discovered the internal thermometer of seeds that can delay or even block germination if temperatures are too high for the future seedling. This work could help optimize plant growth in a context of global warming. These results can be ...

A commonly used scientific method to analyze a tiny amount of DNA in early human embryos fails to accurately reflect gene edits, according to new research led by scientists at Oregon Health & Science University. The study, published today in the journal Nature Communications, involved sequencing the genomes of early human embryos that had undergone genome editing using the gene-editing tool CRISPR. The work calls into question the accuracy of a DNA-reading procedure that relies on amplifying a small amount of DNA for purposes of genetic testing. In addition, the study reveals that gene editing to correct disease-causing mutations in early human embryos can also lead to unintended ...

LOS ANGELES — Keck Medicine of USC has named Ikenna (Ike) Mmeje president and CEO of USC Arcadia Hospital (USC-AH), effective March 13. In this position, Mmeje will further the health system’s mission to expand access to specialized health care and research to the San Gabriel Valley and beyond. He will oversee all management and operations of the hospital, including corporate compliance, strategic plan implementation and fundraising. “Mmeje will utilize his wealth of knowledge and experience running complex, high-performing hospitals in his new role leading USC Arcadia Hospital,” said Rod Hanners, CEO of Keck Medicine. Mmeje replaces current ...

Computer models are an important tool for studying how the brain makes and stores memories and other types of complex information. But creating such models is a tricky business. Somehow, a symphony of signals – both biochemical and electrical –  and a tangle of connections between neurons and other cell types creates the hardware for memories to take hold. Yet because neuroscientists don’t fully understand the underlying biology of the brain, encoding the process into a computer model in order to study it further has been a challenge. Now, ...

Plants convert light into a form of energy that they can use – a molecule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP) – through photosynthesis. This is a complex process that also produces sugar, which the plant can use for energy later, and oxygen. Some bacteria that live in the light-exposed layers of water sources can also convert light to ATP, but the process they use is simpler and less efficient than photosynthesis. Nonetheless, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology researchers now find this process isn’t as straightforward and limited as was previously thought. Rhodopsins are the light-driven proton pumps ...

1. Commercial water purification system may have caused pathogen infection in 4 hospitalized patients Abstract: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M22-3306 URL goes live when the embargo lifts A study of 4 cardiac surgery patients in one hospital found that they developed Mycobacterium abscessus infections, a multidrug-resistant nontuberculous mycobacteria, potentially due to a commercial water purifier. The water purifier had been installed in the hospital to improve water palatability but was inadvertently removing chlorine from the supply lines feeding ice and water machines in the affected area of ...

B. Hadley Wilson, MD, FACC, is the new president of the American College of Cardiology. Today marks the first day of his one-year term leading the global cardiovascular organization in its mission to transform cardiovascular care and improve heart health. “Some of the best qualities of the ACC and its members are the commitment to patient care and the shared vision of a world where science, innovation and knowledge optimize and transform cardiovascular care and outcomes for all,” Wilson said. “I believe we all really practice what we preach. I am honored to lead an organization dedicated to innovating ...

Beginning today, Nicole L. Lohr, MD, PhD, FACC, will serve as chair of the American College of Cardiology Board of Governors (BOG) and secretary of the Board of Trustees. Her term will run one year from 2023-2024. Lohr will lead governors from chapters representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico and representatives from the U.S. health services. The BOG is the grassroots governing body of the ACC, a nonprofit cardiovascular medical society representing over 56,000 cardiologists and cardiovascular care team members around the world. “I have spent the last 11 years finding ways to get involved in my ACC state chapter and in various ACC councils, ...

Sexual minority families—where parental sexual orientation or gender identity is considered outside cultural, societal, or physiological norms—fare as well as, or better than, ‘traditional’ families with parents of the opposite sex, finds a pooled data analysis of the available evidence, published in the open access journal BMJ Global Health. Parental sexual orientation isn’t an important determinant of children’s development, the analysis shows. The number of children in families with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender ...

Frequent socialising may extend the lifespan of older people, suggests a study of more than 28,000 Chinese people, published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. Socialising nearly every day seems to be the most beneficial for a long life, the findings suggest. In 2017, 962 million people around the globe were over 60, and their number is projected to double by 2050. Consequently, considerable attention has focused on the concept of ‘active’ or ‘successful’ ageing, an important component of which seems to be an active social life, note the researchers. But most of the evidence for the health benefits of socialising ...

In a world first study of daily ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) across the globe, a Monash University study has found that only 0.18% of the global land area and 0.001% of the global population are exposed to levels of PM2.5 - the world’s leading environmental health risk factor – below levels of safety recommended by Word Health Organization (WHO). Importantly while daily levels have reduced in Europe and North America in the two decades to 2019, levels have increased Southern Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America and the Caribbean, ...

Annual damage caused by flooding in the UK could increase by more than a fifth over the next century due to climate change unless all international pledges to reduce carbon emissions are met, according to new research. The study, led by the University of Bristol and global water risk modelling leader Fathom, reveals the first-ever dataset to assess flood hazard using the most recent Met Office climate projections which factor in the likely impact of climate change. Its findings show the forecasted annual increase in national direct flood losses, defined as physical damage to property and businesses, due to climate change in the UK can be kept below 5% above recent historical levels. ...

Astrophysicists in Australia have shed new light on the state of the universe 13 billion years ago by measuring the density of carbon in the gases surrounding ancient galaxies. The study adds another piece to the puzzle of the history of the universe. “We found that the fraction of carbon in warm gas increased rapidly about 13 billion years ago, which may be linked to large-scale heating of gas associated with the phenomenon known as the ‘Epoch of Reionisation’,” says Dr Rebecca Davies, ASTRO 3D Postdoctoral ...

Cities are bursting with life, both human and animal. The smallest of them, insects, spiders, and ants are easily overseen, but their presence – or absence – in cities has wide-reaching effects. Scientists in Austria have published a study in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, which found a correlation between the presence of arthropods – invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton; among them are bees, insects, and spiders – and level of urbanization. “We show that richness and diversity of arthropods on trees and bushes decreases along the rural-urban gradient,” said first author Dr Marion Chatelain, a postdoctoral ...

If you cool down low-density atomic gas to ultralow temperatures (−273°C), you get a new state of matter called the Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC). A BEC has strongly coupled two-atom molecules behaving like a collective wave following quantum mechanics. Now if you reduce the pairing strength between them—for example, by increasing the magnetic field—the atoms form “Cooper-pairs” according to Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory—a Nobel Prize winner. The process is called BCS-BEC crossover. And the theory forms the basis ...

There is increasing evidence that females of all ethnicities and ages are more salt sensitive than males, and that this propensity to hold onto more salt, which drives blood pressure up, increases after menopause. Another important emerging bottom line is that healthy blood pressures might differ between the sexes, which means females might benefit from earlier and different intervention to avoid damage to their heart and vasculature. “The realities are that women and men regulate our blood pressure differently and our blood pressures are different at baseline,” says Dr. Eric Belin de Chantemele, physiologist in the Vascular Biology Center at the Medical College of Georgia at ...

Recent studies have provided strong evidence that patients with heart failure can benefit from medical therapies that can reduce risk of worsening symptoms and extend patients’ lives. But, despite new guidelines, adoption of these therapies has been slow, incomplete and inequitable. A prospective clinical study by investigators from Mass General Brigham evaluated a new approach to improve use of these therapies by putting in place a virtual care team, consisting of physicians and pharmacists, to help guide treatment strategies for patients seeking care at three Mass General Brigham hospitals: Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital ...

Millions of people around the world undergo some type of orthodontic treatment each year due largely to developmental deformities in the jaw, skull, or face. Computed tomography (CT) imaging is the go-to technique for surgeons when planning such treatments, especially surgeries. This is because CT provides 3D images of the bones and teeth, which helps the surgeon analyze complex cases in detail and determine the best treatment procedure based on that. During the CT scan, surgeons typically try to pinpoint specific anatomical landmarks in the images. These are distinct points in the human body that can be used as a reference to make measurements and assess a condition ...