Increased use of ventilation and air cleaners, designed to mitigate the spread of viral infections in hospitals, is likely to have unpredictable effects and may cause viral particles to move around more, according to a new study from researchers at UCL and UCLH. In the study, published in Aerosol Science & Technology, researchers investigated the effect of using built-in mechanical ventilation and portable air cleaners (PACs)1 upon the spread of airborne particles, which are similar to those breathed ...

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL: Jan. 30, 2025, 3:30 p.m. MST Media Contact: Karen Addis, APR, karen@addispr.com, +1 (301) 787-2394 Denver, Colo. ― Microplastics, which are less than 5 millimeters, and nanoplastics, which are invisible to the naked eye, are widespread throughout our environment. Research has shown that exposure to plastics in general is harmful to both the environment and humans. Now, in a new study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine’s (SMFM) annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting™, researchers will unveil findings that suggest that microplastics and nanoplastics have been found ...

SALT LAKE CITY— Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah (the U) proudly announces the addition of two da Vinci 5 robotic surgical systems. This state-of-the-art technology is designed to enhance precision, control, and safety during minimally invasive surgeries, setting a new standard in patient care. These advancements align with Huntsman Cancer Institute’s focus on successfully delivering world-class cancer care through innovative treatments. “This is a significant leap forward in robotic surgery,” says Brian Mitzman, MD, MS, FACS, FCCP, Huntsman ...

CAR T cell therapy is one of the most promising new cancer treatments to emerge in recent years. It involves removing a patient’s own immune T cells and engineering them to recognize specific targets on the surface of the cancer cell. A major limitation of this type of CAR T cell therapy, called autologous therapy, is that the cells are taken from the patient and must be custom-made into a treatment. This requires patients to wait until their cells are modified for infusion — precious time they may not have. Now research done at Memorial Sloan ...

EL PASO, Texas (Jan. 30, 2025) – Health sciences researcher Emre Umucu, Ph.D., associate professor and associate dean for research at The University of Texas at El Paso, has been awarded the Roger G. Barker Distinguished Research Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association (APA). The award honors research in the field of rehabilitation psychology, which focuses on helping individuals with disabilities and chronic conditions improve their health, independence and social participation. “I am ...

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL: Jan. 30, 2025, 2:45 p.m. MST Media Contact: Karen Addis, APR, karen@addispr.com, +1 (301) 787-2394 Denver, Colo. -- In the medical community, research has traditionally focused on how to prevent and treat the leading medical causes of maternal mortality, which include bleeding, infection, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. However, new research reveals deaths by homicide and suicide are the leading causes of maternal death in the United States. In a study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal ...

Millions of women undergo episiotomies during childbirth every year, yet the mechanics behind these surgical cuts remain largely unstudied. A new research project is poised to change that, addressing this significant gap in women’s health. An episiotomy involves cutting the pelvic-floor muscles to aid delivery, a technique currently guided largely by a surgeon’s personal judgment and experience. While intended to prevent severe vaginal tears or other complications during delivery, the procedure itself can lead to lasting pain, incontinence, infection, ...

Experts from the global Earth science community – including a scientist from the University of Calgary – have pieced together what happened during the massive Sikkim flood to try to help others prepare for similar disasters. On Oct. 3, 2023, a multi-hazard cascade in the Sikkim Himalaya, India, was triggered by a permanently frozen (permafrost) lateral moraine – debris from erosion along a glacier – collapsing into South Lhonak Lake. “A landslide went into a lake and that triggered a wave that eroded a dam at the end of the lake, which resulted in a slurry-like flood for hundreds of kilometres,” explains Dr. Dan ...

Rush is developing an innovative data platform to improve the health of Chicagoans. Funded by a $7.5 million grant from the Searle Funds at the Chicago Community Trust, the project will fortify Rush’s data science infrastructure and create a research network to improve quality and equity in health care. “We believe everyone should have the chance to be healthy,” said John Rich, MD, MPH, the Harrison I. Steans Director of the RUSH BMO Institute for Health Equity. “Yet, we know from medical literature that certain groups receive ...

Your parents were right: Scratching an itchy rash really does make it worse. Now we know why, thanks to new research published today in the journal Science that uncovers how scratching aggravates inflammation and swelling in a mouse model of a type of eczema called allergic contact dermatitis. “At first, these findings seemed to introduce a paradox: If scratching an itch is bad for us, why does it feel so good?” said senior author Daniel Kaplan, M.D., Ph.D., professor of dermatology and immunology at the University of Pittsburgh. “Scratching is often pleasurable, which suggests ...

Linking citation and retraction data aids in responsible research evaluation   In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Biology: http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002999 Article title: Linking citation and retraction data reveals the demographics of scientific retractions among highly cited authors Author countries: United States, Italy, the Netherlands Funding: The work of AC has been supported by the European Network Staff Exchange for Integrating Precision Health ...

PITTSBURGH, Jan. 30, 2025 – A prophylactic antibody-based immune therapy protects monkeys against severe disease caused by H5N1 avian flu, University of Pittsburgh and NIH Vaccine Research Center researchers report today in Science. The broadly neutralizing antibody, which recognizes a relatively stable region of the bird flu virus, is less prone to losing its efficacy than antibodies targeting influenza’s more mutation-prone structures. This feature ensures that the immune protection can withstand the possible emergence of virus variants, akin to the SARS-CoV-2 mutants that ...

  Polar bears in Western Hudson Bay have seen their population nearly halved over the last several decades, largely due to dwindling sea ice and limited hunting opportunities, according to the findings of a novel bioenergetic model using data spanning more than 40 years. The findings reveal the relationship between bears’ individual energy needs and environmental limitations in driving population trends, highlighting energy as the central limiting factor behind the decline of a key Arctic apex predator. The Arctic is warming ...

India, the world’s most populated country, has been successfully working to recover one of the largest, and most iconic, carnivores, the tiger, for decades. Protection, prey, peace, and prosperity have been key factors in the tiger recovery within this densely populated country, according to a new study. According to its authors, success in India offers a rare opportunity to explore the socio-ecological factors influencing tiger recovery more broadly. Earth’s large carnivores, crucial for maintaining ecosystem health, are among the most threatened species, impacted ...

New research uncovers the dual nature of scratching an itch; although it can worsen skin inflammation, it can also boost immune defenses against bacterial infections at the injury site. The findings shed light on a pharmacologically targetable pathway that explains how scratching triggers inflammation, resolving the paradox of scratching as both a harmful pathological process and a beneficial evolutionary adaptation. Scratching is a natural, instinctive response to the sensation of itching, and it plays a central role in many ...

In a comprehensive analysis, researchers present the divers, causes, and impacts of the catastrophic 2023 Sikkim glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF). The findings stress the urgent need to enhance GLOF hazard assessments and improve prediction and early warning systems as melting glaciers steadily raise the risk of GLOFs in the Himalayan region. South Lhonak Lake – perched at 5200 meters above sea level in the Upper Teesta basin of Sikkim, India – is among the region's largest and most rapidly expanding glacial lakes, posing severe hazards due to its ...

The most complex engineering of human cell lines ever has been achieved by scientists, revealing that our genomes are more resilient to significant structural changes than was previously thought. Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Imperial College London, Harvard University in the US and their collaborators used CRISPR prime editing to create multiple versions of human genomes in cell lines, each with different structural changes. Using genome sequencing, they were able to analyse the genetic effects of these structural variations on cell survival. The research, published today (30 January) in Science, ...

U of T Scarborough researchers have directly linked population decline in polar bears living in Western Hudson Bay to shrinking sea ice caused by climate change. The researchers developed a model that finds population decline is the result of the bears not getting enough energy, and that’s due to a lack of food caused by shorter hunting seasons on dwindling sea ice. “A loss of sea ice means bears spend less time hunting seals and more time fasting on land,” says Louise Archer, a U of T Scarborough postdoc and lead author of the study. “This negatively affects the bears’ energy ...

(Charlottesville, VA, Jan. 30, 2025) – The Center for Open Science (COS) is excited to announce that Lifecycle Journal, a 3-year research and development pilot on a new model of scholarly communication, is now open for submissions. Lifecycle Journal reimagines scholarly publishing in line with scholarly values of rigor, transparency, sharing, correction, and community evaluation. Lifecycle Journal offers a dynamic, community-driven approach to scholarly publishing, providing a new experience for authors, reviewers, and readers to critically engage with research throughout the entire research lifecycle. The traditional ...

Sheep have been intertwined with human livelihoods for over 11,000 years. As well as meat, their domestication led to humans being nourished by their protein-rich milk and clothed by warm, water-resistant fabrics made from their wool.  Now, an international and interdisciplinary team of researchers led by geneticists from Trinity College Dublin and zooarchaeologists from LMU Munich and the Bavarian State Collections of Natural History (SNSB) has deciphered the prehistoric cultural trajectory of this species by analysing 118 genomes recovered from archaeological bones dating across 12 millennia and stretching from Mongolia to ...

An international study has investigated the causes and impacts of the devastating flood disaster in the Himalayas in October 2023, which destroyed large areas along and surrounding the Teesta River in Sikkim, India. A research team from nine countries, including researchers from the University of Zurich (UZH), analyzed the complex drivers, causes and consequences of this flood cascade and reconstructed the exact time of its onset.  Massive damage caused by tsunami wave  On 3 October 2023, approximately 14.7 million cubic meters of frozen ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – Cornell University researchers have developed a recyclable alternative to a durable class of plastics used for items like car tires, replacement hip joints and bowling balls. Known as thermosets, this type of plastic boasts a “crosslinked polymer” chemical structure that guarantees longevity but has also made these petrochemical-based materials – which comprise 15%-20% of all polymers produced – impossible to recycle. “Currently, zero percent of the world’s thermoset materials are recycled – they’re either incinerated ...

The productivity of cacao trees decreases with time, forcing farmers to renew their plantations by either cutting down the old trees or establishing a new crop elsewhere. Frequently, new plantations are established in areas of the forest that are thinned out to accommodate new, young cacao trees. However, this comes with high economic and ecological costs. An alternative approach is to graft highly productive and native cultivars onto the existing older cacao trees. An international team led by scientists of the University of Göttingen found that cacao grafting is a useful measure to rejuvenate cacao plants, increasing their yield and profits with minimal impact on biodiversity. The ...

Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is leading a new £2 million initiative to help prevent food shortages that could potentially trigger civil unrest in the UK. The project, called Backcasting to Increase Food System Resilience in the UK, is being led by experts from Anglia Ruskin’s Global Sustainability Institute and has received £2,048,461 in funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Building on recent research that found that over 40% of food experts believe widespread civil unrest linked to food shortages, such as demonstrations and violent looting, is possible or likely in the UK within the next 10 ...

The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) and the interventional cardiology community mourn the passing of Frank J. Hildner, MD, FSCAI, a founding member and past president (1989-90) of SCAI. “Dr. Frank Hildner laid the foundation for SCAI’s growth and success. His visionary leadership helped guide SCAI through its formative years, ensuring it would become the trusted home for interventional cardiology. We are deeply grateful for his contributions and will continue to honor his legacy,” said SCAI President James B. Hermiller, MD, MSCAI. Recognizing the need for a dedicated platform for interventional cardiologists, Dr. ...