East Africa’s iconic rangelands - under threat from climate change and human activity - have the potential to recover from repeated environmental shocks and degradation, a new study has concluded. Covering 47% of the Earth’s land surface, rangelands are home to one third of the global population, many of whom are pastoralists who depend on the savannahs to meet their daily need for shelter, water and food. But because rangelands develop in semi-arid areas and are primarily used for grazing, they are highly vulnerable to changes in rainfall and human pressures. As part of the study, published ...

ROCKVILLE, Md.— A new Slovenian population-scaled, school-based study shows that by providing additional physical education lessons to young children is effective in preventing childhood obesity, according to findings published in Obesity, The Obesity Society’s (TOS) flagship journal. “Our results show the importance of sustainable, long-lasting, physical activity programs set in schools for children’s health at both the individual and the population level. While this study analysed only the effectiveness of such program for obesity prevention, physical activity programs are likely to benefit ...

Inducing labour, in a low-risk pregnancy, can have long-term consequences on the child's cognitive development. Research from the Amsterdam UMC shows this based on pregnancy data and school performance at age 12 of 226,684 Dutch children. These results are published today in the journal AOGS.   By combining pregnancy data from the Dutch perinatal registration with data on school performance from Statistics Netherlands, researchers from Amsterdam UMC were able to study the potential effects of induced labour on school performance in low-risk pregnancies.  "We saw a small yet significant reduction in test scores for children born after ...

Acute low back pain is a common cause of disability. An analysis in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research examined which non-opioid drugs are best for treating this condition. The analysis, which included all randomized controlled trials published to date (18 studies with 3,478 patients), showed that muscle relaxants and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) could effectively and rapidly reduce symptoms. The combination of NSAIDs and paracetamol (also known as acetaminophen) was associated with a greater improvement than NSAIDs alone. “This is a first step towards the optimization of the management of acute low back ...

In an analysis published in the British Journal of Management that included 592 firms from 35 countries operating from 2002–2019, higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions were negatively associated with market value, whereas climate change initiatives were positively linked with market value. Surprisingly, climate change initiatives were positively related to increased levels of greenhouse gas emissions. The presence of a board sustainability committee—which plays a crucial role in designing environmental initiatives and introducing best sustainability management practices—was also associated ...

A new study published in Genes, Brain and Behavior has identified several genetic variants that may be linked with mathematical abilities in children. For the research, investigators performed genome-wide association studies on 11 mathematical ability categories in 1,146 students from Chinese elementary schools. They identified seven single nucleotide genetic variants in the genome that were strongly linked to mathematical and reasoning abilities.  Additional analyses revealed significant associations of three mathematical ...

Bovine meat and milk factors (BMMFs)—initially identified by de Villiers et al. in 2014—represent a class of infectious agents in beef and cow's milk that have been linked to the development of cancer. New research published in Molecular Oncology suggests that monitoring the presence and rate of expression of a BMMF-encoded replication protein (Rep) in inflammatory sites of the tissues may help identify individuals at risk for developing colorectal cancer subsequently after decades-long latency periods. The study compared the presence of Rep and specific ...

New research published in Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica found that in women with uncomplicated pregnancies, elective induction of labor at any point between 37 and 41 weeks was consistently associated with lower school performance in children at age 12. The analysis included 266,684 children born between 37 and 42 weeks from uncomplicated pregnancies in white women in the Netherlands. School performance scores at age 12 years were lower in those from pregnancies with induced labor at 37–41 weeks compared with those with uninduced labor. At 42 weeks, there was no significant difference in school performance between these groups. The proportion ...

In several poorer countries, ageing populations and a lack of universal access to long-term care place the burden of care for older adults on their family. To mitigate this, researchers have successfully implemented a community-integrated intermediary care model in Thailand. This care service has proven effective in reducing caregiver burden and improving the functional ability and independence of seniors. The multi-pronged model includes care prevention activities, capacity-building for family caregivers, and community respite services.   Rapidly ageing populations are a problem that many ...

Philadelphia, February 22, 2023 – In recent years, wearable devices such as smartwatches and rings, as well as smart scales, have become ubiquitous – “must-haves” for the health conscious to self-monitor heart rate, blood pressure, and other vital signs. Despite the obvious benefits, certain fitness and wellness trackers could also pose serious risks for people with cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) such as pacemakers, implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), and cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) devices, reports a new study published in Heart Rhythm, the official journal of the Heart Rhythm ...

Feb. 22, 2022 — In this high-tech era, wearable devices such as smartwatches have proven to be invaluable companions for the health conscious. But a new study from the University of Utah shows that for a small group of people, some of these electronic fitness gadgets could possibly be risky to their health — even potentially deadly.             University of Utah electrical and computer engineering assistant professor Benjamin Sanchez Terrones and U associate professor of medicine Benjamin Steinberg have published a new study that shows wearable devices such as ...

As part of an effort to address a diversity crisis in brain research, a USC-led brain research consortium is launching a massive data-gathering initiative in India. By 2050, 79% of the world's population over age 60 will live in developing countries, with 20% in India, according to the United Nations. Yet most brain research has been conducted in Caucasian populations from relatively wealthy backgrounds. This lack of ethnic diversity means that we do not know if predictors of health and disease generalize to other ethnic groups, and researchers struggle ...

Substances exhibit many novel properties under high pressure, for example, pressure can induce insulator-metal or even superconductor transition. However, in-situ magnetic measurement is always a difficult problem in high pressure research and restricts the study of superconductor's Meissner effect and magnetic phase transition behavior of magnetic materials at high pressures. A new high pressure in-situ magnetic detection method was developed recently by a collaborated research group of Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) of Chinese Academy of Sciences, ...

Researchers from Department of Microbiology, School of Clinical Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), has identified novel host protease determinants, that facilitate the infection of SARS-CoV-2, including the Omicron variant, which provided new targets for combating the pandemic. In addition to the host protease determinants, members from the membrane-type matrix metalloproteinase (MT-MMP) and a disintegrin and metalloproteinase (ADAM) families were found to be able to mediate SARS-CoV-2 entry, with an increase efficiency against Omicron BA.1. This finding suggests that a new treatment strategy at MMP inhibition should be explored to effectively combat ...

Recently, Prof. WANG Hui, together with Prof. LIN Wenchu and associate Prof. QIAN Junchao from Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences reported a NIR- II -responsive carbon-coated iron oxide nanocluster which was guided by magnetic resonance image and capable of combined photothermal and chemodynamic therapy (CDT). Relevant results were published in SCIENCE CHINA Materials. As a promising treatment strategy, CDT has become a hot spot in treating cancer because of its simple operation and low side effects. The basic ...

Aquaculture, or the farming of aquatic plants and animals, contributes to biodiversity and habitat loss in freshwater and marine ecosystems globally, but when used wisely, it can also be part of the solution, new research shows. Published today in Conservation Biology, University of Melbourne researchers have identified 12 potential ecological benefits of aquaculture. These include species recovery, habitat restoration, rehabilitation and protection, and removal of overabundant species. Lead ...

Recently, a research team from the Institute of Solid State Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) of Chinese Academy of Sciences developed a wearable sensing patch and realized rapid quantitative analysis of urea. The related results have been published in prestigious international journal Analytical Chemistry. Urea, which is excreted through sweat, urine, saliva and blood, is considered an important indicator of renal function in clinical diagnosis. Effective detection of urea level is crucial for early detection of disease. Wearable fluorescence-based sensors have attracted much attention of users, but traditional fluorescent hydrogels ...

To meet the requirements of single-angle and multi-band polarization aerosol detection, a research team led by Professor SUN Xiaobing from Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) proposed an optimal inversion algorithm based on the combined utilization of multi-band intensity and polarization information. The result was published in Remote Sensing recently. Aerosol optical depth (AOD) is used to characterize the extinction effect of aerosol on solar radiation, which plays ...

According to the research published in Food & Functions recently, a team led by Prof. Huang Qing at the Institute of Intelligent Machines, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), reported for the first time an update and a comprehensive summary of the studies on the immunomodulatory therapies and nutritional significance of Ganoderma lucidum (G. lucidum) from 2010 to 2022, and confirmed that G. lucidum is an essential prebiotic for increasing bacterial flora and a health encouraging agent because of its ...

NAIROBI, KENYA, February 22, 2023 - Alliance for Science (the Alliance) and Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) are excited to launch the SciFun Book, a biotechnology program for high school learners, at the Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi on February 23, 09:00 AM EAT. The SciFun program is designed for Form 2 and Form 3 learners and aims to enhance their understanding of biotechnology through hands-on experience in extracting DNA from fruits and vegetables while making observations about the process. The curriculum for the SciFun program is a collaborative product of Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) Science Centre and BTI, and Alliance for Science. Additional ...

PCR technology is a molecular diagnostics technology that detects target nucleic acids by amplifying the DNA amount. It has brought marked progress in the life sciences field since its development in 1984. This technology has recently become familiar to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic, since PCR can detect nucleic acids that identify the COVID-19 virus. However, due to the technical nature of the PCR test, results cannot be immediately delivered. It takes at least 1 to 2 hours for the test as it requires repeated temperature cycles (60~95℃). Dr. ...

In a chemical reaction, molecules in different substances meet one another to form new molecules causing changes in the bonds of their atoms. The molecules collide at an extremely close distance—a nanometer or less—in an extremely short amount of time. This makes investigating the details of chemical reactions at the molecular scale difficult. Most experimental knowledge, used to explain single-molecule reaction dynamics, was obtained by studying reactions in gases. However, the overwhelming majority of chemical reactions take place in liquids, so elucidating single-molecule reaction dynamics in solution is an important challenge, with very few experimental ...

A team of researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC found that exposure to a mixture of synthetic chemicals found widely in the environment alters several critical biological processes, including the metabolism of fats and amino acids, in both children and young adults. The disruption of these biological processes is connected to an increased risk of a very broad range of diseases, including developmental disorders, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease and many types of cancer.  Known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, these man-made chemicals are used in a wide range of consumer and industrial products. PFAS are sometimes ...

Eighteen cartoons have been selected as finalists in the 2023 Ethics Cartooning Competition, an annual contest sponsored by the Morgridge Institute for Research.  Participants from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and affiliated biomedical centers or institutes submitted their work, then a panel of judges selected the final cartoons for display to the public, who is invited to vote and help determine the 2023 winners. This year’s cartoons depict a variety of research ethics topics, such as the ethics of scientific publishing, research funding and environments, questionable research practices, ...

The Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) is delighted to announce that faculty member Fay-Wei Li has been promoted to Associate Professor on January 13. Li was evaluated on his achievements to date and likelihood of continued success in the future. Since joining BTI in 2017, Li has developed an internationally-recognized program on seed-free plants, both in terms of genome sequencing and in making biological discoveries. He also is an excellent science communicator, with a knack for explaining the importance of scientific discoveries to a wide range of audiences. The ...