Living organisms have a knack for persisting in the face of challenges. For instance, when genes malfunction, organisms may be able to compensate by activating redundant genes with similar functions, called paralogs. One example of such compensation are two genes of the muscleblind-like (MBNL) family of RNA-binding proteins that lose their function in Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1, the most common cause of adult-onset muscular dystrophy. Loss of MBNL1 increases the levels of its paralog MBNL2 in tissues where protein expression is low, allowing MBNL2 to functionally compensate for MBNL1 loss. In animal models, loss of one paralog results in ...

Thanhvu Nguyen, Assistant Professor, Computer Science, is set to receive funding for the project: "CAREER: NeuralSAT: A Constraint-Solving Framework for Verifying Deep Neural Networks."  Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) have emerged as an effective approach to tackling real-world problems. However, just like traditional software, DNNs can have bugs and be attacked. This naturally raises the question of how DNNs should be tested, validated, and ultimately verified to meet the ...

Parth Pathak, Associate Professor, Computer Science, and Robert Simon, Professor, Computer Science, received funding for the project: "Airborne and Vehicular Millimeter-wave Wireless Networking."  Pathak and Simon are developing a state-of-the-art unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) mmWave wireless networking and computing software/hardware platform at George Mason University. The platform will consist of battery-powered and gas-electric hybrid hexacopters, vehicular nodes, and ground robots that will be augmented with mmWave ...

AMES, Iowa – Let’s see, thought James Vary, how can we have a little fun with the name of our $1 million nuclear physics project?   Hmm, can we work in the term hack?   So, it’s “Nuclei and Hadrons with Quantum Computers.” Or, “NuHaQ,” for short.   “It’s a takeoff on ‘hack,’” said Vary, an Iowa State University professor of physics and astronomy and leader of a new project supported by a three-year, $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. In academic computing circles, “to be a good hacker is a positive compliment. Hackers ...

INFORMS Journal Organization Science New Study Key Takeaways: Choosing who to speak to greatly impacts how ideas are heard and implemented in the workplace. Employees who speak to managers or bosses who have the authority and resources to address an issue, led to a 12%-15% increase in implementing ideas and subsequent sales performance. Speaking to peers was associated with a 10% decrease in implemented ideas and subsequent sales performance.   BALTIMORE, MD, February 21, 2023 – Is speaking up at work worth it? New research in the INFORMS journal Organization Science finds that new ideas can be heard and implemented in the office, but it depends on who employees talk to. “There ...

Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have generated the first induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from bats, gaining valuable insights into the close relationship between bats and viruses. This research opens the door to studying how viruses like SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, survive, spread, and evade the immune system through molecular adaptations to new hosts. The team’s findings, published February 21 in Cell, may also shed light on the unique properties of bats that underlie their remarkable defenses against aging and cancer. “Our study suggests that bats have evolved mechanisms to tolerate a large ...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21, 2023 – It is a cruel paradox that on a planet with a surface mostly covered by water, hundreds of millions of people don’t have access to clean drinking water. As for the pollution of potable and natural water sources, one of the main culprits is arsenic, an abundant and toxic element in the earth’s crust. Arsenic is currently known as the cause of groundwater contamination in more than 100 countries – and can produce life-threatening diseases, especially for populations in developing ...

In 2015, scientists for the first time detected gravitational waves, ripples in space-time that occur when major cosmic events—like the collision and merging of two black holes—disrupt the cosmos. The observation of these waves confirmed Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which predicted such waves would occur if space-time worked as he believed it did. In the seven years since, nearly 100 merging black holes have been detected by observing the gravitational waves that these extraterrestrial events emit. Now, thanks to new research from a team of 14 led by Caltech ...

About The Study: Sustained low-wage earning in midlife may be associated with elevated mortality risk and excess deaths, especially when experienced alongside unstable employment, according to the results of this study including 4,000 workers. If causal, the findings suggest that social and economic policies that improve the financial standing of low-wage workers (e.g., minimum wage laws) could improve mortality outcomes.  Authors: Katrina L. Kezios, Ph.D., of Columbia University in New York, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2023.0367) Editor’s ...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21, 2023 – Solar-thermal technology is a promising environmentally friendly energy harvesting method with a potential role to play in solving the fossil fuel energy crisis. The technology transforms sunlight into thermal energy, but it’s challenging to suppress energy dissipation while maintaining high absorption. Existing solar energy harvesters that rely on micro- or nanoengineering don’t have sufficient scalability and flexibility, and will require a novel strategy for high-performance ...

About The Study: This study found that COVID-19 treatment information on U.S. public health websites was poorly accessible, particularly for people with low literacy or limited English language proficiency, with worse accessibility for states and territories with Republican governors. The results suggest the need for national guidelines on accessibility and readability for public health websites.  Authors: Kevin A. Fiscella, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, New York, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media ...

About The Study: The results of this neuroimaging study of 8,900 children ages 9 to 11 suggest that the observed sex differences in cognitive performance and brain connectivity likely reflect faster brain maturation in girls than boys. The findings are relevant to the future creation of brain developmental trajectory charts to monitor for deviations associated with impairments in cognition or behavior, including those due to psychiatric or neurological disorders.  Authors: Dardo Tomasi, Ph.D., of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism ...

Tokyo, Japan – A retrovirus known as human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is known to cause a number of diseases, including inflammatory diseases of the eye. Recently, researchers in Japan have investigated an antibody treatment for inflammatory eye disease in ocular cells infected with HTLV-1.   In a new study published in Frontiers in Immunology, researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) evaluated the safety of an anti-VEGF drug, Aflibercept, in a cell culture model exposed to HTLV-1. HTLV-1 infection can cause such diseases as adult T-cell leukemia and HTLV-1 uveitis, an inflammatory eye condition.   Vascular ...

  When two black holes collide into each other to form a new bigger black hole, they violently roil spacetime around them, sending ripples called gravitational waves outward in all directions. Previous studies of black hole collisions modeled the behavior of the gravitational waves using what is known as linear math, which means that the gravitational waves rippling outward did not influence, or interact, with each other. Now, a new analysis has modeled the same collisions in more detail and revealed so-called nonlinear ...

Data captured from seismic waves caused by earthquakes has shed new light on the deepest parts of Earth’s inner core, according to seismologists from The Australian National University (ANU).   By measuring the different speeds at which these waves penetrate and pass through the Earth’s inner core, the researchers believe they’ve documented evidence of a distinct layer inside Earth known as the innermost inner core -- a solid “metallic ball” that sits within the centre of the inner core.  Not long ago it was thought Earth’s structure was comprised of four distinct layers: the crust, the mantle, the outer core and the inner core. The ...

In a bid to understand why mosquitoes may be more attracted to one human than another, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have mapped specialized receptors on the insects’ nerve cells that are able to fine-tune their ability to detect particularly “welcoming” odors in human skin. Receptors on mosquito neurons have an important role in the insects’ ability to identify people who present an attractive source of a blood meal, according to Christopher Potter, Ph.D., associate professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “Understanding ...

Computer scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science have designed a “reconstruction attack” that proves U.S. Census data is vulnerable to exposure and theft. Aaron Roth, Henry Salvatori Professor of Computer & Cognitive Science in Computer and Information Science (CIS), and Michael Kearns, National Center Professor of Management & Technology in CIS, led a recent PNAS study demonstrating that statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau can be reverse engineered to reveal ...

Woods Hole, Mass. (Feb. 21, 2023) -- When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020 with associated travel restrictions, Matthew Long thought his students could shift their overseas research projects to instead study the seagrass meadow ecosystem in Waquoit Bay. It’s a shallow, micro-tidal estuary on the south side of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, near the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) where Long is an associate scientist in the Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry Department. However, when Long and his students looked for seagrass meadows where he had seen them in previous years, there were only a few shoots of dying Zostera marina eelgrass, ...

Bethesda, MD (Feb. 21, 2023) — In new evidence-based guidelines, the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) recommends non-invasive biomarkers as a first-line strategy for monitoring many patients with ulcerative colitis (UC). These guidelines were published today in Gastroenterology. The AGA guidelines outline use cases for three biomarkers that provide accurate insights into ulcerative colitis disease activity: serum C-reactive protein (CRP) (blood), fecal calprotectin (stool) and fecal lactoferrin (stool). “For decades we have regarded endoscopy as the gold ...

Kai Ni was awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER Award to improve computing memory through the use of ferroelectric materials and capacity. The assistant professor of electrical and microelectronic engineering in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering, Ni has been at the forefront of advancing ferroelectric memory, a familiar but never widely adopted technology that has the potential to meet the growing demand for more energy-efficient computing performance. “The appetite for semiconductors just keeps growing. With the data we are generating every day, we need ways to process ...

Philadelphia, February 21, 2023 – Researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) developed two new zebrafish models for studying a specific genetic form of mitochondrial disease that represents the most common cause of Leigh syndrome. Using these models, the team identified two drugs already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for other conditions that could be repurposed to treat this specific cause of Leigh syndrome. The findings were recently published in the journal Human Molecular Genetics. SURF1 deficiency ...

Public lecture: how can we have a good future with artificial intelligence?AI expert and educator Professor Anikó Ekárt to discuss one of today’s most provocative topics Lecture will take place on 28 February at Aston University Talk to explore artificial intelligence’s capabilities, benefits and pitfalls.   The potential impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on our daily lives will be explored in a public lecture at Aston University. The University is inviting the public onto its campus on Tuesday 28 February to hear Professor ...

A new study underscores the role that parents play as a safety net for their young adult children as those children navigate the labor market, and highlights the challenges facing young adults who do not have access to parental support. “In recent decades, we’ve seen a lot of changes in the labor market, from the decline of lifetime employment at one job to the rise of the so-called ‘gig economy,’” says Anna Manzoni, corresponding author of the study and an associate professor of sociology at North Carolina State University. “We wanted to see what role ...

Scientists at University of Galway have published the first record of a noble false widow spider feeding on a pygmy shrew, a species of tiny mammal protected in Ireland. The new study, recently published in the international journal Ecosphere, demonstrates further the potentially negative impact of the invasive and venomous noble false widow spider on native species.  A recording by Dawn Sturgess showing the spider interacting with the pygmy shrew be downloaded at https://bit.ly/3XPbDKU.  It is the first time a member of this family of spiders, ...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21, 2023 — If you want to make the fluffiest bread possible, you’re going to need to use chemistry. This week, we explore the science behind starch gelatinization, a phenomenon found in Chinese “tangzhong” and Japanese “yudane” techniques. Then, we put it to the test to see how much gelatinized starch it takes to make the fluffiest, tastiest and most stale-resistant loaf! https://youtu.be/3ziMBDPMuP8 Reactions is a video series produced by the American Chemical Society and PBS Digital Studios. Subscribe to ...