Medicaid Accountable Care Organizations May Increase Care Engagement and Quality Among Pregnant and Postpartum Patients A new study found that Medicaid ACOs in Massachusetts were associated with increases in prenatal and postpartum office visits, postpartum depression screenings, and timely postpartum care. Despite recent declines in nationwide maternal mortality, the United States continues to experience a significant maternal health crisis, in part shaped by inequitable access to quality healthcare ...

Researchers at UC Merced used fruit flies to uncover a cellular process common to many organisms that could dramatically impact the understanding of cancer and aging. Department of Molecular and Cell Biology Professor Fred Wolf, then-graduate student Sammy Villa and Genentech Vice President and Senior Fellow in Physiological Chemistry and Research Biology Vishva Dixit, discovered a mechanism that cells use to tune how much protein they make through the process of translating RNA into protein. “This mechanism may be responsible for changes in protein translation in stress, cancer, and aging,” Wolf said. Their work is detailed in the journal Nature ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced awards totaling $142 million for small businesses in 34 states. The 123 projects to be funded address multiple mission-critical areas important for the nation, including clean energy and decarbonization, cybersecurity and grid reliability, fusion energy, and nuclear nonproliferation.   American small businesses play a critical role in these DOE Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) awards, which transform DOE-supported science and technology breakthroughs into ...

LAWRENCE — A fascinating new book chronicling transformation on the plains of Kansas and western Colorado uses repeat photography — contemporary re-creations of 1870s photos — to reveal startling changes to the landscape. Its author isn’t just a photographer and veteran of years of “Kansas-ing” — his term for searching off-the-beaten-path curiosities across the Sunflower State — but also a University Distinguished Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at ...

HOUSTON – (Sept. 3, 2024) – As far as water gear goes, floaties are not exactly high tech. But the tiny air-filled bubbles some microorganisms use as flotation devices when they compete for light on the water surface are a different story. Known as gas vesicles (GVs), the micrometer-sized bubbles hold great promise for a host of biomedical applications, including imaging, sensing, cellular manipulation and tracking and more. The problem is researchers do not yet know how to make medically useful GV varieties in the lab. Rice University ...

ATLANTA — Starting antiviral treatment as late as 14 days after infection with SARS-CoV-2 may still be beneficial in hosts with compromised immune systems, who are at greatest risk of developing severe COVID-19, according to researchers in the Center for Translational Antiviral Research at Georgia State University’s Institute for Biomedical Sciences.  While best to begin treatment earlier, in immunocompromised hosts, drugs like paxlovid and molnupiravir appear to inhibit replication of the virus even if initiated up to 14 days after infection.  The ...

Assorted, distinctive behavior of molten uranium salt revealed by neutrons   The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a world leader in molten salt reactor technology development — and its researchers additionally perform the fundamental science necessary to enable a future where nuclear energy becomes more efficient. In a recent paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, researchers have documented for the first time the unique chemistry dynamics and structure of high-temperature liquid uranium trichloride ...

The shoebox-sized BurstCube satellite has observed its first gamma-ray burst, the most powerful kind of explosion in the universe, according to a recent analysis of observations collected over the last several months. “We’re excited to collect science data,” said Sean Semper, BurstCube’s lead engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “It’s an important milestone for the team and for the many early career engineers and scientists that have been part of the mission.” The ...

Lugano, Switzerland, 3 September 2024 – The ESMO Congress 2024 will take place from September 13-17 in Barcelona, bringing together participants from all over the world. Press representatives eager to grasp cutting-edge data and hearing expert perspectives on the latest research, as well as on the current and emerging hot topics in oncology, are invited to attend the event, which will be held both onsite and remotely.  The full congress program is available online to help press representatives browse regular and late-breaking abstract ...

We all have lived through a pandemic, its uncertainties, challenges, losses and scientific breakthroughs. A prestigious award from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is advancing the work of a team of researchers at the University of Kentucky to help society be better prepared for potential future pandemics. Scott Berry, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in the UK Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering, is the principal investigator ...

The National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has awarded grants for 10 projects to improve diagnostic tools for congenital and adult syphilis—conditions currently diagnosed with a sequence of tests, each with limited precision. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that adult and congenital syphilis cases increased by 80% and 183% respectively between 2018 and 2022—a crisis that prompted the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish a national taskforce to respond to the epidemic.   “Syphilis ...

New findings provide quantitative criteria for classifying social organizations in human history, together with potential explanatory variables that can be empirically measured for anthropology, history, and archaeology, according to a study published September 3, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS Complex Systems by Kenji Itao and Kunihiko Kaneko from the University of Tokyo, Japan and Copenhagen University, Denmark (Kaneko) and the RIKEN Center for Brain Science, Japan (Itao). Human societies have experienced transitions between different types of organizations, including bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and kingdoms. However, quantitative characterizations of the types and mechanisms of ...

The more centrally connected someone is within their social media network, the more likely that new words they use will become adopted into mainstream language, according to a new study published this week in PLOS Complex Systems by Louise Tarrade of École Normale Supérieure, France, and colleagues. Language evolves within a social context and variations in a language are always in competition with each other. In everyday language, words are constantly being created, but not all these words persist. In the new study, researchers analyzed more than 650 million tweets written in French between 2012 and 2014 to identify ...

In US community efforts to prevent childhood obesity, women leaders with more experience and connections have the greatest impact. #### In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS Complex Systems: https://journals.plos.org/complexsystems/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcsy.0000004   Article Title: Determinants and facilitators of community coalition diffusion of prevention efforts Author Countries: United States Funding: TM, MP, and CE received funding from the ...

After four years, a guidebook for the future of autonomous trucking has driven across the finish line. In 2020, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) and 17 partners were awarded a $7.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to develop a concept of operations. The final report, published in July, includes best practices for the implementation of automated driving systems (ADS) in large trucks and policy issues for fleets to consider across eight topic areas. “We’re excited that the Federal Motor Carrier ...

A patient dozes off in a dental chair despite the anxiety of an impending procedure. A seemingly unremarkable act but — for dentists versed in the latest sleep research — this red flag hints at a life-threatening condition. In a research review published in the Journal of the American Dental Association, Rutgers Health researchers identified dentists as an unexpected player in the battle against life-threatening sleep disorders. The review suggests dental professionals have unique opportunities to screen for conditions such as obstructive sleep apnea, a disorder that affects millions of Americans and is linked to serious health risks, including cardiovascular ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $125 million in funding for two Energy Innovation Hub teams to provide the scientific foundation needed to seed and accelerate next generation technologies beyond today’s generation of lithium (Li)-ion batteries. These multi-institution research teams, led by Argonne National Laboratory and Stanford University, will develop scientific concepts and understanding to impact decarbonization of transportation and incorporation of clean energy into the electricity grid. Rechargeable batteries, such as Li-ion and lead-acid batteries, have had a ...

The University of Ottawa has been awarded a $1 million grant from the Ontario Research Fund – Research Excellence (ORF-RE) to support the “Secure, Intelligent and Trustworthy Ecosystems for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles” (SITE-CAV) project. Led by Burak Kantarci,Full Professor, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, uOttawa’s Faculty of Engineering, the project aims to accelerate the development and integration of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs – or vehicles equipped with sensors and decision-making software that drives and controls it without direct ...

Today the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the creation of two new Energy Innovation Hubs. One of the national hubs, the Energy Storage Research Alliance (ESRA), is led by DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory and co-led by DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). ESRA (pronounced ez-ruh) brings together nearly 50 world-class researchers from three national laboratories and 12 universities to provide the scientific ...

Anyone who’s researched ways to lower their environmental impact has likely heard they should eat less meat, particularly beef. Even at scale, cows are an inefficient way to feed people — it takes nearly four tons of water to recoup one ton of beef, and many farming practices emit greenhouse gasses and pollutants. University of Pittsburgh researchers are the first to trace one of those pollutants, nitrogen, along the U.S. beef supply chain at the county level. They found high spatial disconnect between where ...

Virtual reality (VR) video games that combine screen time with exercise are a great way to get fit, but game designers face a major challenge – like with regular exercise, adherence to ‘exergames’ is low, with most users dropping out once they start to feel uncomfortable or bored. Computer scientists at the University of Bath believe they’ve found a solution: create exergames that use sensors to continuously measure a person’s emotional state while they exercise, then tweak the game – for instance, making ...

New research from Bayes Business School (formerly Cass) finds that being on the cutting edge of technology is not enough to ensure success in the market, and managers must strategically time launches to create a source of opportunity and credibility for the firm. The study, led by Dr Thomas Robinson, Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Bayes, with Dr Ela Veresiu, Associate Professor of Marketing at Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto, develops a framework for guiding organisations on the best situations for a product launch. The research identifies four timing situations that can confront marketing managers. Knowing ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A team of Mayo Clinic researchers has developed an innovative computational tool that analyzes the gut microbiome, a complex ecosystem of trillions of bacteria, fungi, viruses and other microorganisms within the digestive system, to provide insights into overall well-being. In a new study published in Nature Communications, the tool demonstrated at least 80% accuracy in differentiating healthy individuals from those with any disease. The tool was developed by analyzing ...

Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) researchers elucidate the role of PQBP3 in stabilizing the nuclear membrane and its relationship to senescence and neurodegeneration Tokyo, Japan – Aging is the prime cause of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. But what exactly increases the prevalence of these brain disorders as one grows older? The molecular forces linking aging, cellular senescence, and the onset of these neurodegenerative conditions ...

Despite what we’ve been led to believe, the timing of evening screen use, rather than the activity itself, negatively impacts youth sleep, a University of Otago study has found.   Current sleep guidelines recommend no screen use in the hour or two before bed. However, the researchers found screen time in the two hours before bed had little impact on youth sleep, it was screen time once in bed that caused problems.   Lead author Dr Bradley Brosnan, of the Edgar Diabetes and Obesity Research Centre, says screen time is a mainstay in adolescents’ bedtime routines, and sleep guidelines need to be revaluated to better reflect modern life.   Published in JAMA Pediatrics, ...