Giant pandas have digestive systems that are typical for carnivores. Yet, bamboo is their main source of food. They have evolved several features, for example pseudo thumbs to grasp bamboo and flat teeth that are well suited for crushing it, that make it possible for them to live off plants. All living organisms have DNA, which stores the genetic information in a cell, and RNA, which carries and transfers this information. MicroRNAs (miRNA) are small non-coding RNAs that play an important role in gene expression, the process of turning the information encoded in a gene into a function. ...

Stretchable display materials, which are gaining traction in the next-generation display market, have the advantage of being able to stretch and bend freely, but the limitations of existing materials have resulted in distorted screens and poor fit. General elastomeric substrates are prone to screen distortion due to the 'Poisson's ratio' phenomenon, in which stretching in one direction causes the screen to shrink in the vertical direction. In particular, electronics that are in close contact with the skin, such as wearable devices, are at risk of wrinkling or pulling on the skin during stretching and shrinking, resulting in ...

By Alistair Jones SMU Office of Research – Even by the standards of medical terminology, photoplethysmography (PPG) is a mouthful. Yet it is widely used in clinical settings as a non-invasive, optical technique for measuring the oxygen saturation level in the blood, and the pulse rate, as vital signs of a patient. It is commonly encountered as a clip-on oximeter attached to a finger. First developed in the 1930s, PPG emits light to illuminate the microvascular bed of the skin. Then a photodiode, positioned alongside the light emitter, captures the reflected light, termed the PPG waveform, which ...

By Vince Chong SMU Office of Research – With the surfeit of trackable, wearable devices in modern life, there is little problem locating things and people outdoors by leveraging Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) solutions (GPS is an example of this type of solution) that use signals from satellites. Indoors on the other hand, is a different matter as GNSS signals are unavailable and other possible signals such as those from Wi-Fi systems are inconsistent, and often distorted.  And when this ability to swiftly, accurately locate indoor objects is starkly crucial to essential services that make the difference between life and death, upgrading ...

No one should have to fear food poisoning every time they eat or drink, but the reality, even in the 21st century, is that risks remain. An Osaka Metropolitan University-led Egypt-Japan research team found E. coli prevalent in over 25% of popular milk and dairy products in Egypt. Of the 210 samples of raw milk, cheese, and yoghurt, 26.2% were positive for E. coli, with the highest being raw buffalo milk at 68%, and the lowest at 7.5% for rayeb, a type of fermented milk. The preference for raw milk instead of pasteurized milk and varying hygienic conditions at small dairies and markets could explain these results. Yet food poisoning ...

By Christie Loh SMU Office of Research – When his parents heard that he had won an award at his workplace, they were naturally delighted, showering their son with a confetti of questions like what the prize was for, whether there was a formal ceremony, and that he must keep up the good work. Indeed, Monit Sharma is well aware that as encouraging as the SMU Research Staff Excellence Award is, the professional road he is on calls for both hard work and stamina. The 23-year-old is a Research Engineer at SMU’s ...

A nationwide study has revealed that survivors of COVID-19 hospitalization face an increased risk of death or organ-related disorders for up to two-and-a-half years after discharge. Published today in Infectious Diseases, the study of nearly 64,000 French residents provides valuable insights into the long-term health effects of COVID-19 and emphasises the need for continued healthcare and monitoring for people who have been hospitalised with SARS-CoV-2 infection. “These findings are a stark reminder of the far-reaching impact of COVID-19, which extends far beyond the initial infection,” says lead author Dr Sarah Tubiana, who specializes ...

Document-level Role Filler Extraction exhibits a wide range of application value in natural language processing, including information retrieval, article summarization and trends analysis of world events. Existing document-level event role filler extraction methods face challenges in contextual modeling of long texts and ignore the explicit dependency relationships between event arguments displayed in long texts. To solve the problems, a research team led by Zhengtao YU published their new research on 15 Feb 2025 in Frontiers of Computer Science co-published by Higher Education Press and ...

New York, NY | February 27, 2025: Employee burnout is likely costing companies millions of dollars each year, ranging from approximately $4,000 to $21,000 per employee in the U.S., according to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. That means a 1,000-employee company in the U.S. would on average be losing about $5 million annually. These estimates are based on a computational simulation model developed by the Public Health Informatics, Computational, and Operations Research (PHICOR) team based at ​​the CUNY Graduate ...

A new report reveals how domestic violence impedes women’s employment, often forcing them out of the workforce altogether. In many cases they work fewer hours, for less pay, than employed women who have not experienced domestic violence. This ‘employment gap’ can be as large as 9.4 per cent: 72 per cent of women who have endured economic abuse in the past five years are in employment compared with 81.4 per cent of women who have not been subject to such abuse. The report, The Cost of Domestic Violence to Women’s Employment and Education, draws on data that enables, for the first time, a quantification of the employment and educational ...

One in eight patients in hospitals in Africa is critically ill, and one in five of the critically ill die within a week, according to a new study in The Lancet. The researchers behind the largest study of critical illness in Africa to date conclude that many of these lives could have been saved with access to cheap life-saving treatments. Being critically ill means having severely affected vital functions, such as extremely low blood pressure or low levels of oxygen in the blood. In the new study, researchers show that one in eight patients in African hospitals, 12.5 percent, is in this condition. ...

Red blood cells carry oxygen from the lungs to every other organ, and blood-forming stem cells must make about 200 billion new red blood cells each day to keep the oxygen flowing.  For many years, scientists assumed that blood production took place in the bone marrow. But now, researchers at UCSF are showing it’s also happening in the lungs.  They found hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in human lung tissue that make red blood cells, as well as megakaryocytes, which produce the platelets that form blood clots. The findings appear Feb. 27 in Blood. The work, which was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute ...

Researchers studying a protein linked to a rare, severe disease have made a discovery that sheds light on how cells meet their energy needs during a severe metabolic crisis. The findings could lead to new treatments for the disease and open new avenues of research for other conditions involving impaired fat metabolism. When scientists at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona first identified a handful of protein-coding genes called TANGO in 2006, they had no idea that one of them, TANGO2, would eventually be linked to a life-threatening ...

February 27, 2025 Remote work “a protective shield” against gender discrimination  Survey of more than 1000 women shows incidence higher on-site versus out of the office Toronto - Having staff physically in the workplace benefits companies and employees through stronger team collaboration and informal mentorship. But as organizations continue to corral employees back into the office, they should recognize that women pay a price through increased exposure to gender discrimination, says a new study from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. In ...

LA JOLLA, CA—Air pollution contributes to nearly 7 million premature deaths each year, and its effects go far beyond the lungs. Breathing in wildfire smoke or automobile-related city smog doesn’t just increase the risk of asthma and heart disease—it may also contribute to brain diseases as diverse as Alzheimer’s and autism. Scientists at Scripps Research have discovered how a chemical change in the brain—which can be triggered by inflammation and aging as well as toxins found in air pollution, pesticides, wildfire smoke and processed meats—disrupts normal brain cell function. Known as S-nitrosylation, ...

A University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist is participating in  a U.S. government effort to design a satellite and instruments capable of detecting space debris as small as 1 centimeter, less than one-half inch. Debris that small, which cannot currently be detected from the ground, can damage satellites and other spacecraft in low-Earth orbit. The idea is to outfit future satellites, such as those vital for communication systems, with technology to avoid space debris collisions. Space debris travels ...

Clinical research has long focused on ways to harness the actions of the immune system. From vaccines to immunotherapies, researchers have used their knowledge of the immune system to develop therapies to treat or prevent diseases from influenza to autoimmune disease and cancer. Now, researchers from Penn’s School of Dental Medicine and international collaborators have investigated the effects of training the innate immune system in experimental models of two chronic inflammatory diseases, periodontitis and arthritis. They found that this “trained” immunity, or TRIM, led to increased bone loss in these models. This ...

A vast search of natural diversity has led scientists at MIT’s McGovern Institute and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard to uncover ancient systems with potential to expand the genome editing toolbox. These systems, which the researchers call TIGR (Tandem Interspaced Guide RNA) systems, use RNA to guide them to specific sites on DNA. TIGR systems can be reprogrammed to target any DNA sequence of interest, and they have distinct functional modules that can act on the targeted DNA. In addition to its modularity, TIGR is very compact compared to other RNA-guided systems, like ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic has again received the No. 1 ranking in Newsweek's list of the "World's Best Hospitals." This is the seventh straight year Mayo Clinic has received the top ranking. "This continued recognition is a tribute to our dedicated staff who consistently deliver unparalleled, compassionate care to our patients," says Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., president and CEO of Mayo Clinic. "We remain committed to delivering Category-of-One experiences for each patient who seeks our care while simultaneously working to transform healthcare to ...

An NYU Tandon School of Engineering-led research team has developed a way for self-driving vehicles to share their knowledge about road conditions indirectly, making it possible for each vehicle to learn from the experiences of others even when they rarely meet on the road. The research, presented in a paper at the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Conference on February 27, 2025, tackles a persistent problem in artificial intelligence: how to help vehicles learn from each ...

New York— A new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health reveals that Medicaid extension policies, which cover all immigrants in the post-COVID era, have led to a notable reduction in postpartum uninsurance, particularly in New York City. However, the study highlights that awareness gaps may have hindered the full benefit for Hispanic immigrants. The results are published in the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH). Continuous Medicaid enrollment during the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) was associated with a 4 percentage-point decrease in postpartum uninsurance among immigrant populations in New York City. This led to a reduction, though not ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2025 Media Contacts: Renee Tessman, rtessman@aan.com, (612) 928-6137 Natalie Conrad, nconrad@aan.com, (612) 928-6164 Physical activity linked to lower risk of dementia, sleep disorders, other diseases MINNEAPOLIS – People who get moderate to vigorous physical activity may be less likely to develop dementia, stroke, anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders, according to a preliminary study released today, February 27, 2025, that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 77th Annual Meeting taking place April 5–9, 2025, in San Diego and online. The study ...

In response to the worsening climate crisis, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health is launching the Center for Achieving Resilience in Climate and Health (C-ARCH) to be a global solutions lab for responding to and mitigating the manifold detrimental health impacts of climate change while building adaptive capacity. C-ARCH’s team of climate and health scientists will forge partnerships with governments and communities worldwide to pursue rigorous research to identify the specific ways climate extremes harm health; design, deploy, and evaluate ...

SAN ANTONIO, Feb. 27, 2025 – Researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and their collaborators at Emory University have received a $4.9 million grant aimed at significantly improving treatment and recovery rates for individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The project was recently selected for funding by the U.S. Department of Defense through a call for studies to evaluate psychedelics as a treatment for PTSD in hopes of pushing the field forward. In this effort, the innovative clinical trial will use 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine hydrochloride, or MDMA, commonly ...

The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF) invites the public to a free webinar, “Emerging Treatments for Social Disconnection in Psychiatric Illness” on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, at 2:00 pm ET. Register Now to explore groundbreaking research on the mental health issue: social disconnection. Defined as social isolation and loneliness, social disconnection is a major health comparable to smoking, according to the National Institutes of Health. Social disconnection is widespread in psychiatric illness, and social dysfunction ...