The link between massive flood basalt volcanism and the end-Triassic (201 million years ago) mass-extinction is commonly accepted. However, exactly how volcanism led to the collapse of ecosystems and the extinction of entire families of organisms is difficult to establish. Extreme climate change from the release of carbon dioxide, degradation of the ozone layer due to the injection of damaging chemicals, and the emissions of toxic pollutants, are all seen as contributing factors. One toxic element stands out: ...

KANSAS CITY, MO—April 30, 2024—The Stowers Institute for Medical Research announces the appointment of Kamena Kostova, Ph.D., as its newest Principal Investigator. Kostova, an accomplished cellular and molecular biologist, will join the Institute in Fall 2024 as an Assistant Investigator. She brings with her an established research program focused on understanding cellular responses to ribosome breakdown and the relationship these responses have with complex diseases such as cancer and neurodegeneration.  Kostova is currently ...

The German Science and Humanities Council (Science Council) assessed the German Fed-eral Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) in Berlin on 7 and 8 November 2023 and published its assessment today, 22 April 2024. As the highest German scientific commission, it certi-fies that the BfR “fulfills tasks of great social relevance” (protection of human health, in-forming the public about health risks posed by chemicals and biological substances) “on the basis of very good research”. It is characterised by an “extremely rapid response capability, a pronounced application orientation and a high degree of being up-to-date with its topics”. “We are delighted ...

In a new study published in Cell Stem Cell, USC scientists report significant progress in cultivating nephron progenitor cells (NPCs), the cells destined to form the kidney’s filtration system, the nephrons. NPCs hold immense promise for understanding kidney development, modeling diseases, and discovering new treatments. “By enhancing our capability to grow NPCs from human stem cells, we create a new avenue for understanding and combating congenital kidney diseases and cancer,” said corresponding and lead author Zhongwei Li, an assistant professor of medicine, and stem cell biology and regenerative medicine ...

Bottom Line: The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends biennial screening mammography for women ages 40 to 74. The USPSTF concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening mammography in women 75 years or older. The USPSTF concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of supplemental screening for breast cancer using breast ultrasonography or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in women identified to have dense breasts on an otherwise negative screening mammogram. Among ...

WASHINGTON, April 30, 2024 – Interactions with voice technology, such as Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google Assistant, can make life easier by increasing efficiency and productivity. However, errors in generating and understanding speech during interactions are common. When using these devices, speakers often style-shift their speech from their normal patterns into a louder and slower register, called technology-directed speech. Research on technology-directed speech typically focuses on mainstream varieties of U.S. English without considering speaker groups that are more consistently ...

A new type of bioplastic could help reduce the plastic industry’s environmental footprint. Researchers led by the University of California San Diego have developed a biodegradable form of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), a soft yet durable commercial plastic used in footwear, floor mats, cushions and memory foam. It is filled with bacterial spores that, when exposed to nutrients present in compost, germinate and break down the material at the end of its life cycle. The work is detailed in a paper published on April 30 in Nature Communications. The biodegradable TPU was made with ...

Adults are lonelier in early and older adulthood, less lonely in middle adulthood Consistent loneliness pattern found across nine longitudinal studies, all collected prior to COVID-19 pandemic CHICAGO --- Loneliness in adulthood follows a U-shaped pattern: it’s higher in younger and older adulthood, and lowest during middle adulthood, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study that examined nine longitudinal studies from around the world.  The study also identified several risk factors for heightened loneliness across the whole lifespan, including ...

It’s a ‘twofer’: Helping men manage side effects, receive cancer treatment at same time Men with cancer rarely participate in oncology supportive care: ‘You build it, and they don’t come’ First study to deliver mindfulness during radiation therapy while patients were ‘a captive audience’ CHICAGO --- Men with prostate cancer who are treated with radiation therapy experience significant side effects such as fatigue, sleep problems, anxiety and depressive symptoms. But listening to mindfulness audio recordings significantly eased those symptoms, a new Northwestern ...

Studies by INSEAD Professors Atalay Atasu and Luk Van Wassenhove have been recognised by members of the Product Operations Management Society for their impact. Their papers are named among the top 10 most influential papers published in the first 30 years of the Production and Operations Management (POM) journal. They were voted for by POM society members based on an original list of 150 of the most cited papers since the publications launch in 1992. Emeritus Professor Van Wassenhove is a co-author of two papers that made the top 10. His 2005 paper, “Sustainable Operations Management” looked at ...

The researchers in Bergen and Exeter used data from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) and a similar study in the UK, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), to investigate the relationship between smoking and placental weight. The aim was to determine to what extent expectant mothers who quit smoking could impact the weight of the placenta at the time of birth. The study was recently published in the journal BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. Previous research has demonstrated ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Use of publicly available large language models (LLMs) resulted in changes in breast imaging reports classification that could have a negative effect on patient management, according to a new international study published today in the journal Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). The study findings underscore the need to regulate these LLMs in scenarios that require high-level medical reasoning, researchers said. LLMs are a type of artificial intelligence (AI) widely used today for a variety of purposes. In radiology, LLMs have already been tested in ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Smokers who have small abnormalities on their CT scans that grow over time have a greater likelihood of experiencing acute respiratory disease events, according to a new study published today in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).   Quantitative interstitial abnormalities (QIA) are subtle abnormalities on chest CTs that do not meet the diagnostic criteria for advanced pulmonary diseases but are nonetheless associated with decreased ...

Engineers in Australia have found a new way to make power-pole insulators resistant to fire and electrical sparking, promising to prevent dangerous pole-top fires and reduce blackouts.   Pole-top fires pose significant challenges to power providers and communities worldwide. In March, pole-top fires cut power from 40,000 homes and businesses in Perth. The 2020 Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements found that power outages experienced by 280,000 customers from various energy providers during Black Summer fires were mainly triggered by events involving insulators ...

A team of astronomers and citizen scientists has discovered a planet in the habitable zone of an unusual star system, including two stars and potentially another exoplanet. The planet hunters spotted the Neptune-like planet as it crossed in front of its host star, temporarily dimming the star’s light in a way akin to a solar eclipse on Earth. This ‘transit method’ usually identifies planets with tight orbits, as they are more likely to follow paths that put them between Earth and their host star and, when following such paths, move into light-blocking positions more frequently. That’s why this newly discovered planet is ...

WASHINGTON, DC (April 30, 2024)—Tambourine Philanthropies (Tambourine), in partnership with the Milken Institute Science Philanthropy Accelerator for Research and Collaboration (SPARC), is pleased to announce the recipients of its ALS Breakthrough Research Fund. Tambourine has committed over $5 million total to eight teams around the world for basic and discovery-focused research aiming to change how we understand and treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).  Tambourine launched the ALS Breakthrough Research ...

Electric bicycle rebates have exploded in popularity in North America as transportation planners try to get people out of their cars and into healthier, more climate-friendly alternatives. However, there is limited understanding of the full impacts of these incentives. Are new cycling habits sustainable? Who benefits most from these incentives? And are they worth the cost? Researchers at UBC’s Research on Active Transportation (REACT) Lab have some answers. They surveyed participants in an e-bike incentive program offered by the District of ...

With the help of a form of machine learning called deep reinforcement learning (DRL), the EPFL robot notably learned to transition from trotting to pronking – a leaping, arch-backed gait used by animals like springbok and gazelles – to navigate a challenging terrain with gaps ranging from 14-30cm. The study, led by the BioRobotics Laboratory in EPFL’s School of Engineering, offers new insights into why and how such gait transitions occur in animals. “Previous research has introduced energy efficiency and musculoskeletal injury avoidance as the two main explanations ...

A novel oral amphotericin B (MAT2203) developed by Matinas BioPharma for treatment of invasive mucormycosis (IM) and other deadly invasive fungal infections, has demonstrated encouraging results in a series of preclinical studies. The groundbreaking research, led by Lundquist Institute (TLI) Investigator Ashraf Ibrahim, PhD, has been published in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. The studies focused on MAT2203, an oral lipid nanocrystal formulation of amphotericin B, which has previously demonstrated safety and effectiveness in the clinical treatment of various fungal infections. The research aimed ...

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have the potential to make life easier for people with motor or speech disorders, allowing them to manipulate prosthetic limbs and employ computers, among other uses. In addition, healthy and impaired people alike could enjoy BCI-based gaming. Non-invasive BCIs that work by analyzing brain waves recorded through electroencephalography are currently limited by inconsistent performance. Bin He and colleagues used deep-learning decoders to improve a BCI’s performance responding to ...

Background and objectives Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder with unclear molecular mechanisms. Noncoding RNAs, such as microRNAs (miRNAs) and long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), have been identified as critical regulators of gene expression. This study aimed to investigate the triple network of lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA, known as competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs), and to identify essential lncRNAs that regulate PD-related gene expression through their target miRNAs. The study also identified a common triple network between COVID-19 and PD that may contribute to exacerbating PD symptoms.   Methods A bioinformatics approach was employed to construct ...

The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) has developed a clinical tool to help health care professionals incorporate a food as medicine approach into their practice by assessing and tracking the proportion of whole, unrefined plant-based foods and water intake in their patients’ dietary patterns. The ACLM Diet Screener, a 27-item diet assessment tool available free on ACLM’s website, was designed to guide clinical conversations around diet and support nutrition prescriptions, while also being brief enough for use during routine ...

Québec, April 30, 2024 - Cranberry extracts appear to improve intestinal microbiota and help prevent chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The study of Université Laval and the Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods (INAF) reported beneficial effects after only four days of use.   Cranberries and berries are associated with multiple health benefits, mainly attributed to their high content of polyphenols, in the form of tannins. They also contain high concentrations of oligosaccharides, small fibres that are thought to contribute to their bioactivity.   The research team, led by Yves Desjardins, professor ...

Nuclear energy has long been regarded as a next-generation energy source, and major countries around the world are competing to secure cutting-edge technologies by leveraging the high economic efficiency and sustainability of nuclear power. However, uranium, which is essential for nuclear power generation, has serious implications for both soil ecosystems and human health. Despite being a key radioactive material, uranium poses significant health risks due to its chemical toxicity to the kidneys, bones, and cells. As a result, both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organization recommend allowing and advocating for uranium concentrations in wastewater ...

The carbon emissions associated with air travel to professional conferences make up a sizable fraction of the emissions produced by academia. Andrea Gokus and colleagues estimated the CO2-equivalent emissions for conference travel to all 362 open meetings in the field of astronomy in 2019. The total is an estimated 42,500 tCO2e, or about one ton per participant per meeting. According to the authors, networking and discussing new scientific developments at meetings is important for advancing the field, but adjustments can be made to reduce the hefty carbon cost. Holding meetings virtually ...