We’ve all been there: staring at a math test with a problem that seems impossible to solve. What if finding the solution to a problem took almost a century? For mathematicians who dabble in Ramsey theory, this is very much the case. In fact, little progress had been made in solving Ramsey problems since the 1930s. Now, University of California San Diego researchers Jacques Verstraete and Sam Mattheus have found the answer to r(4,t), a longstanding Ramsey problem that has perplexed ...

Chickens are one of the most economically important animals in the world today. However, the story of their origins and dispersal across the ancient world is still poorly understood. In fact, new archaeological techniques have recently led to the recognition that many finds of bones previously thought to represent early chickens in fact belonged to wild birds. Now, in a new publication, an international team of archaeologists, historians, and biomolecular scientists present the earliest clear evidence for the raising of chickens for egg production, and argue that the loss of seasonal egg laying was the main driver for the dispersal of domestic chickens across Eurasia and northeast Africa.  Using ...

Association in-between features has been demonstrated to improve the representation ability of data.  However, the original association data reconstruction method may face two issues: the dimension of reconstructed data is undoubtedly highly than that of original data, and adopted association measure method does not well balance effectiveness and efficiency. To solve the problems, a research team led by Yuhua QIAN published their new research on 12 Mar 2024 in Frontiers of ...

  The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), a division of the National Institutes of Health, has granted Eiji Yoshihara, PhD, a principal investigator at The Lundquist Institute (TLI) and assistant professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, a five-year grant totaling $3 million. This prestigious NIH R01 grant, known for its rigorous peer-review process, is dedicated to advancing stem cell therapy research for treating diabetes. Insulin-dependent diabetes, including autoimmune Type 1 and stress-induced Type 2, presents a significant health burden, often necessitating lifelong ...

A recent collaborative study has discovered rare variants in the YKT6 gene as the cause of a new neurological disorder characterized by developmental delays along with severe progressive liver disease and a potential risk for liver cancer. The study, published in Genetics in Medicine, was led by Dr. Hugo Bellen, Distinguished Service Professor at Baylor College of Medicine and Principal Investigator at the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) at Texas Children’s Hospital, and Dr. Wendy Chung, the Chief of the Department of Pediatrics at Boston Children’s ...

Australia could soon see megadroughts that last for more than 20 years, according to new modelling from The Australian National University (ANU) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes. The researchers’ bleak findings are before factoring in human impact on the climate since the Industrial Revolution. The ANU-led team also found that 20th century droughts in southwestern and eastern Australia, including the Murray-Darling Basin, were longer on average compared to pre-industrial times. According to the scientists, the findings paint a worrying picture of future droughts in Australia that are far worse than anything in recent experience. Megadroughts are exceptionally ...

Jens Dilling has been named associate laboratory director for the Neutron Sciences Directorate, or NScD, at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, effective April 1. “ORNL pioneered neutron scattering in the 1940s, developing a new technique that enables scientists to explore and create new materials, batteries and more,” ORNL Director Stephen Streiffer said. “Today, ORNL remains at the forefront of this science, and Jens will play a critical role in ensuring the nation's ...

Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have been awarded two new grants by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), totaling $6.7 million, to develop and clinically test technologies that can noninvasively examine and quantify immune cells found in tumors. These immune cells, called macrophages, are involved in the body’s normal inflammatory responses, but they also make up a significant portion of solid tumors. The density of macrophages in a tumor can affect how it responds to treatment, so the ability to count them noninvasively could help doctors decide which therapies ...

DARIEN, IL – The risk of increased health care utilization among children with a chronic medical condition is higher for those who also have a sleep disorder, according to a new study that examined Medicaid claims data. The study found that among children who had a chronic medical condition, those who also had a diagnosed sleep disorder were nearly two times more likely to have increased health care utilization (odds ratio = 1.83) than those who had no sleep disorder. The most common sleep disorder diagnosis was sleep-disordered breathing, which was present in 1,796 children. ...

Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 1 April 2024     Annals of Internal Medicine Tip Sheet      @Annalsofim     Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only ...

Mark Torres, assistant professor of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences at Rice University, has won a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award to unlock new insights in river water chemistry, including its implications for addressing environmental concerns. Torres’ five-year, $612,930 grant is to develop innovative approaches for analyzing variations in river water chemistry. He will lead a research team to shed light on the interplay between water flow and chemical reactions to better understand the effects of climate change on water resources. “The chemistry ...

For Tom Maccarone, the universe really is his laboratory. “I am drawn to the idea of things going on where there are conditions you have little or no hope of reproducing in a lab,” said Maccarone, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Texas Tech University. “It gives you a way to do the most exotic physics experiments without having to build a giant laboratory. I am also drawn to problems where we still don’t really know anything.” Maccarone recently enjoyed the best of both ...

Mental health issues during pregnancy or the first year of parenthood have a much greater chance of getting detected and treated now than just over a decade ago, a trio of new studies suggests. But the rise in diagnosis and care hasn’t happened equally across different groups and states, leaving some pregnant or postpartum individuals more likely to suffer through treatable symptoms that can put themselves and their newborn at risk. In general, the studies show rises in diagnoses of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder ...

Pregnancy and childbirth can be significant stressors on mental health. Nearly one in eight people who have given birth develop postpartum depression, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than just the “baby blues,” postpartum depressive symptoms can lead to adverse outcomes for birthing people and families, and treatment requires effective screening, diagnosis and management. New research from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and the Columbia University Mailman ...

NEW ORLEANS, La – Ten Ochsner Health nurses have been named to Louisiana State Nursing Association’s (LSNA) inaugural “40 under 40” list. This award recognizes future leaders of nursing in Louisiana. LSNA selected 40 outstanding nurse leaders 40 years of age and under who exemplify dedication to the nursing profession and demonstrate the qualities of a good leader. "Nurses provide an indispensable role in delivering high quality healthcare to our communities. This recognition is well-deserved and a testament to each nurse’s commitment to excellence in administering compassionate care to their patients. At Ochsner, we applaud this achievement and extend ...

For many, spring heralds fresh air and exercise on the golf course. But do players risk exposure to unsafe levels of pesticides used to beautify and maintain a golf course’s green grass? To find out, researchers asked volunteers to play 18 holes on a simulated course sprayed with common pesticides. They report the results in ACS Agricultural Science & Technology, saying there is likely limited cause for concern over toxic exposure from pesticide-treated turf. There are plenty of studies on pesticide exposure among people who tend ...

SAN ANTONIO, April 1, 2024 – Boris A. Zelle, MD, FAAOS, FAOA, professor, vice-chair of research and chief of orthopaedic trauma in the Department of Orthopaedics at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio), recently received the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons 2024 Diversity Award, recognizing outstanding contributions to advancing diversity in the field. With more than 39,000 members, the AAOS is the world’s largest medical association of musculoskeletal specialists. “Receiving the AAOS Diversity Award means a lot to me,” Zelle told the AAOS. “I have practiced academic ...

Scientists have been searching for the optimal coronavirus vaccine since the Covid-19 pandemic started. The mRNA vaccines developed through the federal government's "Operation Warp Speed" program were a massive innovation; however, annually updating those boosters for specific SARS-CoV-2 variants is inefficient for scientists and patients. SARS-CoV-2 is just one member of the Sarbecovirus (SARS Betacoronavirus) subfamily (others  include SARS-CoV-1, which caused the 2002 SARS outbreak, as well as other viruses circulating in bats that could cause future pandemics). Researchers at the Georgia Institute of ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic scientists have developed an immunotherapy strategy that potentially lays the groundwork for treating a spectrum of autoimmune diseases.  The new technique, detailed in a preclinical study published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, involves combining chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) with mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC), resulting in engineered stem cells known as CAR-MSCs.  “The pioneering approach shows potential in targeting inflammatory disease sites more precisely and improving immunosuppression and healing outcomes,” says Saad Kenderian, M.B., ...

An enormous meteor spelled doom for most dinosaurs 65 million years ago. But not all. In the aftermath of the extinction event, birds — technically dinosaurs themselves — flourished.  Scientists have spent centuries trying to organize and sort some 10,000 species of birds into one clear family tree to understand how the last surviving dinosaurs filled the skies. Cheap DNA sequencing should have made this simple, as it has for countless other species. But birds were prepared to deceive us. In a pair of new research papers ...

A team of scientists led by researchers at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences have developed an innovative method to link the genetics and function of individual microbes living without oxygen deep below Earth’s surface. Measuring both of these attributes — and, more importantly, linking them together — has long been a challenge in microbiology but is critical for understanding the role of microbial communities in global processes like the carbon cycle.  The new approach, developed at Bigelow Laboratory’s Single Cell Genomics Center, enabled researchers to discover that one species of sulfate-consuming ...

Scientists at Uppsala University have discovered a new class of antibiotics with potent activity against multi-drug resistant bacteria, and have shown that it cures bloodstream infections in mice. The new antibiotic class is described in an article in the scientific journal PNAS. Antibiotics are the foundation of modern medicine and over the last century have dramatically improved the lives of people around the world. Nowadays we tend to take antibiotics for granted and rely heavily on them to treat or prevent ...

Birds are the only dinosaur lineage that survived until today. About 66 million years ago at the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary, a mass extinction event destroyed all non-avian dinosaurs, providing an opportunity for birds to diversify rapidly and occupy a wide range of ecological niches. Neoaves, a diverse group comprising approximately 95% of all bird species today, emerged from this radiation. From the towering condors of the Andes to the diminutive hummingbirds flitting through tropical forests, Neoaves encompass a stunning ...

An international team of scientists has built the largest and most detailed bird family tree to date—an intricate chart delineating 93 million years of evolutionary relationships between 363 bird species, representing 92% of all bird families. The advance was made possible in large part thanks to cutting-edge computational methods developed by engineers at the University of California San Diego, combined with the university’s state-of-the-art supercomputing resources at the San Diego Supercomputer Center. These technologies have enabled researchers to analyze vast amounts of genomic data with high accuracy and speed, ...

TAMPA, Fla. (April 1, 2024) – The idea for Fawn Ngo’s latest research came from a television interview. Ngo, a University of South Florida criminologist, had spoken with a Vietnamese language network in California about her interest in better understanding how people become victims of cybercrime. Afterward, she began receiving phone calls from viewers recounting their own experiences of victimization. “Some of the stories were unfortunate and heartbreaking,” said Ngo, an associate professor in the USF College of Behavioral and Community Sciences. “They made me wonder about the availability ...