CLEVELAND, Ohio (Oct. 30, 2024)—Many studies suggest that an earlier age at menopause is more detrimental to a woman’s health, leading to an increased risk for adverse health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, and depression, among others. However, a new study is linking a later age at natural menopause with a greater risk for asthma. Results of the study are published online today in Menopause, the journal of The Menopause Society. Asthma is a common, chronic disease affecting more than 300 million people worldwide. The prevalence of asthma ...

EMBARGOED: NOT FOR RELEASE UNTIL 00.05 (UK TIME) WEDNESDAY 30 OCTOBER 2024 An international team of paleobiologists have found that the sinuses of ocean dwelling relatives of modern-day crocodiles prevented them from evolving into deep divers like whales and dolphins. A new paper published today [30 October] in Royal Society Open Science suggests that thalattosuchians, which lived at the time of the dinosaurs, were stopped from exploring the deep due to their large snout sinuses. Whales and dolphins (cetaceans) ...

Botanists have come to understand the channels and transporters involved in the uptake and transport of nutrients, yet how are they positioned where they need to be? For example, plants need boron, which is taken into the cells by molecules known as the boric acid channel. But how do the proteins that form the channel make it to the plasma membrane? A research group led by Professor Junpei Takano of Osaka Metropolitan University’s Graduate School of Agriculture identified a mutant line of Arabidopsis thaliana in which the boric acid channels are not properly transported to the plasma membrane. The cause was a deficiency in the protein KAONASHI3 (KNS3); the name ...

University of Cambridge media release   Britain’s brass bands older than we thought and invented by soldiers from the Napoleonic Wars, new study reveals   UNDER STRICT EMBARGO UNTIL 00:01 AM (UK TIME) ON WEDNESDAY 30TH OCTOBER 2024   Military musicians returning from the Napoleonic wars established Britain’s first brass bands earlier than previously thought, new research reveals. The study undermines the idea that brass bands were a civilian and exclusively northern creation.   It is widely believed that brass bands originated with coal miners and other industrial communities ...

The Lancet: Health threats of climate change reach record-breaking levels, as experts call for trillions of dollars spent on fossil fuels to be redirected towards protecting people’s health, lives and livelihoods New global findings in the 8th annual indicator report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change reveal that people in every country face record-breaking threats to health and survival from the rapidly changing climate, with 10 of 15 indicators tracking health threats reaching ...

Just one or two sessions of physical activity at the weekend—a pattern of exercise dubbed ‘weekend warrior’---may be just as likely to lower the risk of cognitive decline, which can often precede dementia, as more frequent sessions, concludes research published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. And it may be more convenient and achievable for busy people as well, suggest the researchers. It’s important to identify potentially modifiable risk factors for dementia because a 5-year delay in onset might halve its prevalence, they say, adding that nearly all the evidence to date comes from studies ...

Physical activity of any intensity after a diagnosis of dementia is associated with around a 30% lower risk of death, finds research published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. The findings prompt the researchers to conclude that those affected should be encouraged to keep up or start an exercise routine, especially as average life expectancy after a diagnosis of dementia may be only around 4-5 years.  Previously published research has linked physical activity with a lower risk of death in people with the disease, but these studies have focused on a single point in time. So it’s not clear if changes in the amount or intensity of physical ...

Lifetime cannabis use is associated with several changes in brain structure and function in later life, suggests an observational study, but these associations may not be causal, finds a genetic analysis of the same data, published in the open access journal BMJ Mental Health. Some other unidentified factors may explain the differences found, say the researchers, who nevertheless emphasise that further research is needed to fully understand the effects of heavy use and cannabis potency on the brain. Cannabis use has increased worldwide following its ...

A new paper published today, led by Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, reveals how volunteers across Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan enabled researchers to gather seven years of data on the spawning migrations of suckers, an understudied yet essential group of freshwater fishes. Using observations collected by trained members of the public, the collaborative team of researchers have discovered that temperature is the primary trigger for sucker spawning migration, which can help inform conservation strategies in light of a changing climate. “We believe that conservation of native, non-game fishes ...

Bill Dingus ’81, a Rice University alumnus, and his wife Mary Anne have pledged $1 million to support the university’s Human Impacts on the Earth Fund, dedicated to mitigating and addressing the negative environmental effects caused by human activities on the planet. Additionally, the Dingus family is matching other donors’ contributions to the fund up to $250,000. The Dingus’ donation enables the launch of the Earth and Planetary Opportunities in Research (EXPLORE) program, a new initiative offered through the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences (EEPS) that allows undergraduates of any major hands-on experience in research projects ...

Most patients may continue to safely take glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists as prescribed before undergoing elective surgery and gastrointestinal endoscopies, according to new clinical guidance released today by five surgical and medical societies including the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS), American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), International Society of Perioperative Care of Patients with Obesity (ISPCOP), and Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES). The guidance, published online in Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  Using computational tools, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have developed a method to assess which patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer could benefit from immunotherapy. The work by computational scientists and clinicians was published Oct. 28 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  Immunotherapy is used to try to boost the body’s own immune system to attack cancer cells. However, only some patients respond to treatment, explains lead study author Theinmozhi Arulraj, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins: “It’s really important ...

About The Study: The PROTECTED transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) trial could not show that the use of cerebral embolic protection (CEP) had a significant effect on the incidence of periprocedural stroke during TAVR. Although there was no significant interaction by geographic region, this exploratory post hoc analysis suggests a trend toward greater stroke reduction in the U.S. cohort but not in the outside the U.S. cohort. These findings are hypothesis generating, and further research is needed to determine if regional differences in patient characteristics or procedural practices ...

Jake Lewis, an entomologist in the Environmental Science and Informatics Section at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), is fascinated by weevils, a diverse group of beetles that includes many species with elephant trunk-like mouthparts (called a rostrum). Weevils provide various ecosystem services such as pollination and decomposition, but some species are serious pests known to decimate crop fields and timber forests. Using x-ray microtomography, a 3D imaging technique ...

Ultrasound, once used almost exclusively to take images of the body, is quickly developing into a targeted therapy that can have a potentially life-changing impact on our brains, according to the authors of a new article. For decades, health professionals across the world have used ultrasound as a means of monitoring the development of unborn babies and assessing the health of patients’ internal organs. But writing in the journal PLOS Biology, researchers from Stanford University, the University of Plymouth, and Attune Neurosciences say it has now been demonstrated to offer a non-invasive and precise way of targeting ...

The U.S. Department of Defense awarded just under $514,000 to an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the U of A to study the efficacy of “self-delivering” gene editors in the treatment of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, or DMD.  DMD results from a mutation in the dystrophin gene and is one of the most severe inherited muscular dystrophies, leading to deterioration of the muscle fibers. Presently, there is no cure, but advances in treatment have helped patients live longer, better lives. Gene therapy designed to ...

With growing concern about the ubiquity of toxic chemicals in consumer products, many states have passed laws aimed at protecting people from harmful substances in everyday items like cosmetics, cleaning supplies, plastics, and food packaging. California’s Proposition 65, for instance, is considered one of the most extensive toxics laws in the country. But does the law work? According to a new study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, it does. “Not only have people’s exposures to specific toxic chemicals gone down in California, ...

A survey of patients receiving gender affirming care shows that commercial insurance pays for most of their treatments, they receive less care in the South than other parts of the U.S. and they deal with disproportionate levels of housing insecurity and trauma compared to others, according to a new study by researchers at the Colorado School of Public Health and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. The study, using data provided by Kythera Labs, a healthcare clearinghouse, examined millions of insurance claims by patients undergoing gender affirming care (GA) and those not. It also looked at social determinants of healthcare (SDOH), non-medical factors ...

LAWRENCE — With $5 million in support from the U.S. Department of Energy, the University of Kansas and Avium — a startup firm founded by researchers from KU’s School of Engineering — aim to make clean hydrogen more affordable. According to the DoE, the work at KU is part of $750 million in funding for 52 projects across 24 states “to dramatically reduce the cost of clean hydrogen and reinforce American leadership in the growing hydrogen industry.” Green hydrogen is a key tool in the worldwide ...

Microswimmers often need to independently navigate narrow environments like microchannels through porous media or blood vessels. The swimmers can be of biological origin, like algae or bacteria, but also constitute custom designed structures used for the transport of chemicals and drugs. In these cases, it is important to control how they swim in relation to walls and boundaries - as one might want them to exchange fuel or information, but also avoid them to stick where they are not supposed to. Many swimmers are electrically ...

WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 28, 2024 – The first powered randomized trial examining early intervention with transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in patients with asymptomatic, severe aortic stenosis (AS) found this strategy to be both a safe and effective alternative to clinical surveillance (CS). Findings were reported today at TCT 2024, the annual scientific symposium of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF). TCT is the world’s premier educational meeting specializing in interventional ...

Patients with late-stage cancer often have to endure multiple rounds of different types of treatment, which can cause unwanted side effects and may not always help. In hopes of expanding the treatment options for those patients, MIT researchers have designed tiny particles that can be implanted at a tumor site, where they deliver two types of therapy: heat and chemotherapy. This approach could avoid the side effects that often occur when chemotherapy is given intravenously, and the synergistic effect of the two therapies ...

WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 28, 2024 – The EVOLVED trial found that early aortic valve intervention in patients with asymptomatic severe aortic stenosis (AS) and mid-wall myocardial fibrosis on magnetic resonance imaging did not reduce the incidence of the composite primary endpoint of all-cause death or unplanned aortic stenosis hospitalization compared with guideline-directed conservative management.   Findings were reported today at TCT 2024, the annual scientific symposium of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF). TCT is the world’s premier educational meeting specializing in interventional cardiovascular ...

Earlier this year, researchers at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Quantum Physics (CCQ) announced that they had successfully used a classical computer and sophisticated mathematical models to thoroughly outperform a quantum computer at a task that some thought only quantum computers could solve. Now, those researchers have determined why they were able to trounce the quantum computer at its own game. Their answer, presented on October 29 in Physical Review Letters, reveals that the quantum problem they tackled — involving ...

University of Texas at Dallas mechanical engineers have designed a 3D-printed femur that could help doctors prepare for surgeries to repair bones and develop treatments for bone tumors. The engineers, who worked in collaboration with UT Southwestern Medical Center orthopedic surgeons, published their first study on the 3D-printed thigh bone online Aug. 5 in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research. The study, which focused on the middle section of the bone, establishes 3D-printing parameters for a femur for use in biomechanical testing. Researchers said more studies will be needed before the technology could be available for widespread use. To study and validate innovative surgical implants ...