Virginia Tech researchers have learned how bacteria manipulate molecules to infect the host organism. Daniel Capelluto and his research team have discovered the mechanism by which the bacterial pathogen Shigella flexneri, the causative agent of dysentery, manipulates molecular activity to assure its survival against its host’s natural defenses. Their findings were recently published in Structure, a Cell Press journal that supports open access.  “This infection strategy may be employed by other bacteria, making this research a potential foundation for understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying various bacterial infections,” said Capelluto, associate professor ...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20, 2024 – Within the cycling realm, “to Everest” involves riding up and down the same mountain until your ascents total the elevation of Mt. Everest — 8,848 meters. After a new cycling “Everesting” record was set a few years ago, a debate ensued on social media about the strong tailwind the cyclist had on climbs — 5.5 meters per second (20 kilometers per hour or 12 miles per hour) — when he set the record. To what extent did the tailwind help him? Should limits be set on the allowed ...

About The Study: This cross-sectional study found that extreme temperature–related deaths in the contiguous U.S. were projected to increase substantially by mid–21st century, with certain populations, such as non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic adults, projected to disproportionately experience this increase. The results point to the need to mitigate the adverse outcome of extreme temperatures for population health.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Sameed Ahmed M. Khatana, MD, MPH, ...

About The Study: In this nonrandomized clinical trial, integration of perioperative exercise interventions using wearable devices improved physical activity (especially moderate-to-vigorous physical activity) and dyspnea at 6 months after lung cancer surgery compared with usual care. This finding suggests a promising role for wearable devices in personalizing perioperative rehabilitation strategies. Corresponding Authors: To contact the corresponding authors, email Danbee Kang, PhD, (dbee.kang@gmail.com) and Hye Yun Park, MD, (hyeyunpark@skku.edu). To access ...

Displaced individuals experience high rates of emotional distress, depression and anxiety resulting from trauma and stress from displacement and loss. Their mental health may suffer further due to a lack of resources, language barriers, and discrimination during resettlement. A new study by University of California San Diego researchers reports that displaced Syrian refugees with higher reported self-compassion were less likely to report poor mental health outcomes. The study was published in PLOS ONE on September 19, 2024. Sarah Alsamman, a student at UC San Diego School of Medicine, and Wael Al-Delaimy, M.D., Ph.D., professor of public health at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public ...

Fukuoka, Japan—Researchers from Japan and Thailand investigating microplastics in coral have found that all three parts of the coral anatomy—surface mucus, tissue, and skeleton—contain microplastics. The findings were made possible thanks to a new microplastic detection technique developed by the team and applied to coral for the first time. These findings may also explain the ‘missing plastic problem’ that has puzzled scientists, where about 70% of the plastic litter that has entered the oceans cannot be found. The team hypothesizes ...

(WASHINGTON, September 20, 2024) –The incidence of stroke continues to increase for adults and children living with sickle cell disease (SCD) despite the Stroke Prevention Trial in Sickle Cell Anemia (STOP) establishing standards of care like transfusions and tests to measure blood flow in the brain for those deemed high-risk, according to a study published today in Blood. Individuals living with SCD, the most common inherited red blood cell disorder in the United States, are especially susceptible to cerebrovascular events (CVEs). This includes ischemic or hemorrhagic strokes, when a blood vessel leading to the brain is ...

Radomes and wave-transmitting antenna windows are critical structural components in aircraft, protecting radar antennas from external interference while ensuring reliable communication. Currently, the most widely used wave-transmitting materials are ceramics based on oxides and nitrides. Si3N4 ceramics, with their high melting point and superior mechanical properties, are considered promising candidates for hypersonic vehicle applications. However, the dielectric and thermal insulation properties of dense Si3N4 ceramics need improvement to meet the precise guidance and thermal protection demands of high-speed flight. By adjusting the microstructure, it is possible to enhance the ...

A joint research team from the Renewable Energy System Laboratory and the Energy ICT Research Department at the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) has developed key technologies to realize "Urban Electrification" using artificial intelligence (AI). Urban electrification aims to reduce the use of fossil fuels and introduce renewable energy sources, such as building-integrated solar technology, to transform urban energy systems. While this concept is relatively unfamiliar in the Republic of Korea, it is being promoted as a key strategy in the U.S. and Europe for achieving carbon neutrality and creating sustainable urban environments. In ...

Using a fusion of traditional and novel technological methods, researchers are hoping to better quantify emotions to transform the face of the emotion quantification field   Human emotions are complex and are not always easily able to be boiled down to a recognizable pattern. Determining one’s emotional state can be difficult human-to-human, and the many nuances of existence as an emotional entity seem impossible to train a non-human entity to understand, identify and learn from. However, a considerable amount of work and research has been put into training artificial intelligence (AI) to observe, quantify and recognize various states of emotion in humans. ...

Key points: Glioblastoma is an incurable and fatal type of brain cancer. In a large-scale drug screening, the antidepressant, vortioxetine emerged as one of the most effective agents against these types of cancer cells. Clinical trials are already in the planning phase at the University Hospital Zurich. Glioblastoma is a particularly aggressive brain tumour that at present is incurable. Cancer doctors can extend patients’ life expectancy through operations, radiation, chemotherapy or surgical interventions. Nevertheless, half of patients die within twelve months of diagnosis. Drugs that are effective against brain tumours are ...

The European Union aims to be carbon-neutral by 2050 as part of the comprehensive Green Deal that was agreed upon four years ago. However, an analysis of the policy documents outlining the practical measures of the Green Deal shows that it will decrease carbon emissions in Europe, but also increase carbon emissions outside of the EU. This increase is more than double the amount of carbon emissions saved by the Green Deal. This analysis was published in Nature Sustainability on <DATE> by an international team of scientists led by Klaus Hubacek, Professor of Science, Technology and Society ...

Osaka, Japan – Walking is an activity that is often taken for granted. Most people usually think they can multitask by “walking and chewing gum” simultaneously with hardly any taxation of their mental effort. Indeed, each leg can move rhythmically independently of the other, controlled by its side of the spinal cord. However, the ability of the human brain to coordinate the gait so that a walker’s legs are half a stride out of phase with each other, called the “antiphase relationship,” is not so trivial when an obstacle or asymmetry occurs, such as a curve in the path. A better understanding of how a normal walking cadence is maintained ...

A new type of blood test using lipids could make it easier to identify children at risk of complications around obesity including type two diabetes, liver and heart disease, say scientists. A new study from King’s College London published in Nature Medicine reveals a new relationship between lipids and diseases impacting  metabolism in children, which could serve as an early warning system for conditions like liver disease. Using machines that test blood plasma in babies that already exist in hospitals, the researchers suggest this ...

Iron is a micronutrient indispensable for life, enabling processes such as respiration, photosynthesis, and DNA synthesis. Iron availability is often a limiting resource in today’s oceans, which means that increasing the flow of iron into them can increase the amount of carbon fixed by phytoplankton, with consequences for the global climate. Iron ends up in oceans and terrestrial ecosystems through rivers, melting glaciers, hydrothermal activity, and especially wind. But not all its chemical forms are ‘bioreactive’, that is, available for organisms ...

As society learns to live with COVID-19, research on the disease and its complications remains important. Thus, an Osaka Metropolitan University team has pored through data to understand the incidence in Japan of COVID-19-associated pulmonary aspergillosis (CAPA), a severe invasive fungal infection of the lungs. Few studies have been conducted on CAPA in Japan, but reports from overseas put the incidence between 3.8% and 35%. Using Japanese administrative claims data, Graduate School of Medicine Lecturer Waki Imoto, graduate student Mr. Yasutaka Ihara, Professor Ayumi Shintani, ...

FOR MORE INFORMATION Michael San Filippo Senior Media Relations Manager American Veterinary Medical Association Cell/Text: 847-732-6194 msanfilippo@avma.org     Cooler heads prevail: New research reveals best way to prevent dogs from overheating   (SCHAUMBURG, Illinois) September 19, 2024— As temperatures continue to soar across the country, a simple yet innovative technique could be the key to keeping dogs safe from heat-related illnesses.   New research published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) reveals that teaching dogs ...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Nearly 6,000 opioid-related overdose deaths occurred in California in 2021, many due to fentanyl, a synthetic opioid. To address the crisis, a team of researchers in the School of Medicine, or SOM, at the University of California, Riverside, plans to develop and implement a curriculum that offers education on substance use disorders to medical students early and throughout their education. To facilitate the development of the curriculum, the team has been awarded a grant of $900,000 from the Substance Abuse ...

Fussy eating is mainly influenced by genes and is a stable trait lasting from toddlerhood to early adolescence, finds a new study led by researchers from UCL (University College London), King’s College London and the University of Leeds. The study, published in the Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry and funded by the UK mental health charity MQ Mental Health Research, compared survey results of parents with identical or non-identical twins in England and Wales from the ages of 16 months to 13 years. The ...

Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society is widely recognized as a leading voice in the history of science. George Sarton founded the journal in 1912, and two years later the History of Science Society (HSS) was formed to advance the journal’s mission and centralize the nascent discipline. The September 2024 issue of Isis pays tribute to the centennial anniversary of the HSS with a collection of articles that delve into the rich history of the society and its publications. In their introduction to the issue, editors Alexandra Hui and Matthew Lavine write that the issue can be seen as “a love letter of sorts: to the Isis readership, ...

A pioneering study presented today at ECTRIMS 2024 has identified critical biomarkers that can predict disability worsening in multiple sclerosis (MS). The breakthrough research has the potential to transform treatment strategies for millions of MS patients worldwide, paving the way for more personalised and effective treatment plans.1 In this multicentre observational study, conducted across 13 hospitals in Spain and Italy, Dr. Enric Monreal and his team found that elevated serum neurofilament light chain (sNfL) levels—a protein indicating nerve cell damage—at the onset of MS can predict both relapse-associated worsening (RAW) and progression independent ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA — A new study from researchers at MIT and Penn State University reveals that if large language models were to be used in home surveillance, they could recommend calling the police even when surveillance videos show no criminal activity. In addition, the models the researchers studied were inconsistent in which videos they flagged for police intervention. For instance, a model might flag one video that shows a vehicle break-in but not flag another video that shows a similar activity. Models often disagreed with one another over whether to call the police ...

The beliefs we hold develop from a complex dance between our internal and external lives. Our personal-level cognition and our relationships with others work in concert to shape our views of the world and influence how likely we are to update those views when we encounter new information. In the past, these two levels of belief have been studied largely in isolation: psychologists have modeled the individual-level cognitive processes while researchers in fields from computational social science to statistical physics have offered insights ...

In an article published in JAMA Network Open, researchers at the University of São Paulo’s Medical School (FM-USP) report on a study involving 774 men and women who followed a vegan diet in Brazil. Their findings show that on average the participants consumed the recommended amount of proteins and essential amino acids, and that their diet consisted largely of unprocessed and minimally processed foods. However, participants who consumed proportionally lower levels of industrialized products such as protein supplements and textured soy protein were more likely to exhibit inadequate ...

An outstanding $21 million philanthropic investment will establish a pioneering research centre to advance precision diagnosis for diseases that affect millions of Australians. The Colonial Foundation Diagnostics Centre will use cutting-edge ‘spatial biology’ technologies to deliver enhanced diagnosis and, in turn, personalised care for patients with inflammatory diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease. The centre, co-led by WEHI and the Royal Melbourne Hospital, and funded by the Colonial Foundation, builds on an existing partnership that has pioneered potential new tests for detecting early-stage dementia. At a glance   A $21 million ...