COLUMBUS, Ohio – Not all communities in the United States face the same risks for environmental problems such as air pollution, noise and wastewater.  But how can federal agencies fairly identify which areas deserve the most help?   A new consensus study report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) offer recommendations for developing tools that can help answer that question.   “Our job was to create methods to identify disadvantaged communities that most need federal resources to address environmental justice issues,” said Harvey Miller, ...

Wiener Studying Learning & Metacognition For The Perception Of Time Martin Wiener, Associate Professor, Psychology, College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS), received funding to study learning and metacognition for the perception of time.  Via this research, Wiener will conduct a series of studies that will inform metacognition and interval timing. He holds that this work will lead to a new domain of study to further understand how humans learn and adapt to temporal intervals. By understanding how the brain measures and learns intervals of time, we can better understand ...

Dumas Receives Funding For Study Of How Distinct NMDA Receptor Signaling Domains Regulate Hippocampal Network Dynamics Theodore Dumas, Associate Professor, Psychology, College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS), received funding for the project: “Distinct NMDA receptor signaling domains regulate hippocampal network dynamics. Dumas and his collaborators hypothesize that in wildtype mice, NMDA receptors regulate hippocampal network oscillatory activity (slow gamma frequency) in the absence of ion conductance (nonionotropic) and that enhancing GluN2B subunit-type nonionotropic signaling will increase slow gamma power and enhance spatial memory retrieval. The researchers ...

DNA methylation is a process in which a methyl group is attached to the cytosine base of the DNA molecule, and a major way that DNA is epigenetically marked. Epigenetic modifications can act as on-off switches to regulate gene expression and help generate diverse cell types without changing the underlying DNA sequence. It is how the body ensures that brain-related genes don’t get turned on in heart cells, for example. For this reason, maintenance of the DNA methylation pattern is important to ensure the correct and consistent function of each cell type. But this is no easy feat: the DNA methylation pattern can change over time, and this is linked to a variety of diseases. One ...

In recent years, advances in photonics and materials science have led to remarkable developments in sensor technology, pushing the boundaries of what can be detected and measured. Among these innovations, non-Hermitian physics has emerged as a crucial area of research, offering new ways to manipulate light and enhance sensor sensitivity. A recent study published in Advanced Photonics Nexus reports a breakthrough in this field, presenting a new type of sensor that leverages exceptional points (EPs) to achieve unprecedented levels of sensitivity. This study introduces a highly sensitive and reconfigurable sensor based on a single ...

LOS ANGELES — Over 6.5 million Americans experience chronic wounds — wounds that do not heal after a few months. Almost all such wounds contain bacteria, which, if not detected and removed, can lead to severe infection and resulting complications, including amputation if a limb is involved.  This is especially true for patients with diabetic foot ulcers (open sores), which affects one-third of people with diabetes. Approximately 20% of those who develop a diabetic foot ulcer will require a lower-extremity amputation, according ...

UCLA has received a $120 million commitment from surgeon, inventor and philanthropist Dr. Gary Michelson and his wife, Alya, to kick-start the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy, an innovative public-private partnership aimed at spurring breakthrough discoveries that prevent and cure diseases and catalyze economic growth and innovation in Los Angeles.  Michelson, a spine surgeon and prolific inventor who holds nearly 1,000 individual patents, is co-founder and chair of the board of the institute, which will be housed at UCLA’s state-of-the-art research park. The gift, distributed via ...

Dunick Receives Funding For Center For Economic Education Jason Dunick, Associate Chair and Term Associate Professor, Economics, College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS), received $108,692 from Virginia Council on Economic Education for: “Center for Economic Education.” Dunick will use this funding to support the continuation of the services of the Center for Economic Education. The Center supports K-12 teachers who are teaching economics and personal finance in Virginia. This grant represents the renewal of a long-standing relationship with the ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contacts: Colleen McDonald Sr. Consultant, Earned Media Kara Reed Director of Development Lisa Babin Executive Director of Communications Medical College of Wisconsin University of California San Diego LSU Health Shreveport  414.801.3146 | cmcdonald@mcw.edu 217.390.6629 | k3hendrickson@ucsd.edu 318.675.8769 | lisa.babin@lsuhs.edu   Milwaukee, Wis., August 27, 2024 – John McCorvy, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department ...

“The results indicated a significant increase in cumulative t-Cys levels and the total number of t-Cys residues in aging and aged mice proteomes compared to young groups.” BUFFALO, NY- August 27, 2024 – A new research perspective was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science), Volume 16, Issue 15 on July 25, 2024, entitled, “Trioxidized cysteine and aging: a molecular binomial that extends far beyond classical proteinopathic paradigms.” Oxidative stress (OS) - characterized by an imbalance between oxidants and antioxidants - leads to the formation ...

“Properly leveraged AI-based techniques could herald a new era of precision medicine guided by non-invasive, imaging-based disease evaluation." BUFFALO, NY- August 27, 2024 – A new editorial was published in Oncotarget's Volume 15 on August 26, 2024, entitled, “Artificial intelligence: A transformative tool in precision oncology.” Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing society and healthcare, opening new possibilities for precision medicine. In oncology, immunotherapy (IO) has similarly transformed cancer treatment with novel ...

Micro- and nanoplastics are in our food, water and the air we breathe. They are showing up in our bodies, from testicles to brain matter. Now, University of British Columbia researchers have developed a low-cost, portable tool to accurately measure plastic released from everyday sources like disposable cups and water bottles. The device, paired with an app, uses fluorescent labeling to detect plastic particles ranging from 50 nanometres to 10 microns in size – too small to be detected by the naked eye – and delivers results in minutes. The method and findings are detailed in ACS Sensors. “The breakdown of larger plastic pieces into microplastics ...

About The Study: White patients discharged from the emergency department with a nonspecific diagnosis of interest were significantly more likely than Black patients to receive related diagnostic testing in this study. The extent to which this represents diagnostic test overuse in white patients vs undertesting and missed diagnoses in Black patients deserves further study.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Michael I. Ellenbogen, M.D., email mellenb6@jhmi.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.30306) Editor’s ...

Two groundbreaking studies published in the journal Cell shed light on the assembly, function and evolutionary diversity of the chloroplast protein import system. Chloroplasts are fundamental organelles in plant cells that act as the primary site of photosynthesis to sustain life on Earth. Although chloroplasts have their own genome, most of their proteins are encoded in the nucleus and synthesized as preproteins in the cytosol. These preproteins are subsequently transported across the outer and inner envelope membranes of the chloroplasts. The translocon machineries, known as the TOC (translocon at the outer chloroplast membrane) and TIC (translocon at ...

All organisms — from fungi to mammals — have the capacity to evolve and adapt to their environments. But viruses are master shapeshifters with an ability to mutate greater than any other organism. As a result, they can evade treatments or acquire resistance to once-effective antiviral medications.  Working with herpes simplex virus (HSV), a new study led by Harvard Medical School researchers sheds light on one of the ways in which the virus becomes resistant to treatment, a problem that could be particularly ...

Whether you’re strolling through a garden, wandering a park, or simply enjoying an open space in the United States, you’re likely to notice bees buzzing about the flowers. While honeybees, imported from Europe in the 17th century to produce honey, are the most recognizable, they aren’t the only bees at work. If you’re a keen observer, you might spot some of the thousands of less familiar, native bee species that call these spaces home.  Native wild bees play a crucial ecological role, ensuring the survival and reproduction of ...

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are known for their remarkable properties, which make them essential in many advanced technologies. Yet, creating these nanotubes efficiently and on a large scale has been a persistent challenge.   Now, a team led by Professor Takahiro Maruyama at Meijo University has introduced a revolutionary method that utilizes cobalt (Co) and iridium (Ir) nanoparticle catalysts in a liquid-phase synthesis process. This innovative approach offers a promising solution to the longstanding issues of production efficiency and scalability. These findings have been published ...

Study led by UCSF estimates 3 to 5% of women have unplanned pregnancies following “permanent” sterilization   Tubal sterilization is thought to be a permanent form of birth control and is the most common method of contraception nationally. But a new study led by UC San Francisco reports that tubal surgery fails often enough that some other forms of birth control are usually more effective.     The authors found that 3 to 5% of women in the United States who had their tubes tied later reported an unplanned pregnancy. This failure rate led the authors to suggest that patients who really want to avoid future pregnancy should instead ...

New York, NY (August 27, 2024) – The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) Catalyst Award program has awarded a $4 million, five-year grant to Prashant Rajbhandari, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology, Diabetes and Bone Disease) at the Mount Sinai Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism Institute, to investigate a new frontier in understanding metabolic diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes. While much is known about how organs like the liver, fat tissue, and ...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The University of Louisville’s groundbreaking Green Heart Louisville Project has found that people living in neighborhoods where the number of trees and shrubs was more than doubled showed lower levels of a blood marker of inflammation than those living outside the planted areas. General inflammation is an important risk indicator for heart disease and other chronic diseases. The Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute launched the first-of-its-kind project in 2018 in partnership with The Nature ...

A research paper by scientists at Beijing Institute of Technology presented a sciatic nerve stimulation method that will aid in lower extremity standing and stepping. The new research paper, published on Jul. 04 in the journal Cyborg and Bionic Systems, used the electrical nerve stimulation method and achieved muscle control via different sciatic nerve branches to facilitate the regulation of lower limb movements during stepping and standing. Peripheral nerve stimulation is an effective neuromodulation method in patients with lower extremity movement disorders caused by stroke, spinal cord injury, or other diseases. ...

A finding by a McGill-led team of neuroscientists could open doors to new treatments for a range of psychiatric and neurological disorders attributed to dysfunctions in specific dopamine pathways. For those struggling with a psychiatric disorder such as schizophrenia, addiction or ADHD, or with neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s, there might be good news ahead. The neuroscientists have discovered that a small group of dopamine neurons in the striatum play a crucial role in balancing several essential brain functions, including those related to reward, cognition and movement. Dopamine ...

Whether between galaxies or within doughnut-shaped fusion devices known as tokamaks, the electrically charged fourth state of matter known as plasma regularly encounters powerful magnetic fields, changing shape and sloshing in space. Now, a new measurement technique using protons, subatomic particles that form the nuclei of atoms, has captured details of this sloshing for the first time, potentially providing insight into the formation of enormous plasma jets that stretch between the stars. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) created ...

Crime films, action films, comedies, or documentaries? A person's favourite film genre reveals a lot about how their brain works. This is the finding of a new study led by the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) that compared data on film preferences with recordings of the brain activity of around 260 people. Fans of action films and comedies reacted very strongly to negative emotional stimuli, while participants who favoured documentaries or crime films and thrillers had a significantly weaker reaction. The results were published in the journal "Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience". Films are ...

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration has conducted test observations achieving the highest resolution ever obtained from the surface of the Earth, by detecting light from the centers of distant galaxies at a frequency of around 345 GHz. When combined with existing images of supermassive black holes at the hearts of M87 and Sgr A at the lower frequency of 230 GHz, these new results will not only make black hole photographs 50% crisper but also produce multi-color views of the region immediately outside the boundary of these cosmic beasts.  The new detections, led by scientists from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) that ...